When Mel moved to Devon a few years ago she saw an advert for a ‘football coach required’. She made a call and was invited along to watch a training session. From that moment on she got was immediately hooked.  Mel says:

“It was just such an uplifting and rewarding experience to give so many young disabled people the opportunity to play football and here I am – three and half years later – I am a qualified football coach.

“I’m one of a number of volunteers at Barnstaple Ability Counts Football Club.

“It’s just the best feeling in the world to be able to know that someone who has come to a session and they’ve had a really good time and I wouldn’t have that opportunity and I wouldn’t get those feelings if I didn’t volunteer.

“We all need to make our communities a nicer safer better place for people to live in and I really do feel part of the local community because of what I do through football.”

If you’d like to become a sports volunteer in your community, there are many opportunities , such as: