Louise Hunt-Skelley – Paralympian | Speaker | Mentor | Ambassador

Louise was born in 1991 with a disability called Spina Bifida. Spina Bifida is a developmental congenital disorder caused by the incomplete closing of the embryonic neural tube. Louise has therefore been in a wheelchair her whole life as she has little movement in her lower limbs.

At the age of 5 Louise began participating in many sports, swimming, basketball, fencing and soon discovered she had keen interests in Wheelchair Tennis and Wheelchair Racing. Louise Won 7 out of 10 London Mini Wheelchair Marathons which is an un-official World Record. Alongside this she was also playing Tennis and soon realised this was her real passion. Louise has been playing and competing in Wheelchair Tennis ever since, and in 2012 competed in her first Paralympic Games in London which was a dream come true. Louise also competed in the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, qualifying at her highest ever ranking to date of 10 in the World.

In the summer of 2021 Louise decided to retire from competitive sport after achieving and exceeding all goals she had made herself in her athletic career. She is now self employed working across various roles, such as Commentary, Mentoring, Public peaking, Support work and Consultancy. Alongside this work she is still maintaining her Ambassador roles for local and national charities which are very close to her heart.

www.louisehunt.co.uk

Pete Edwards – Coach | Tutor | Mentor 

Pete grew up with parents and five siblings in Rossington South Yorkshire. At the age of six and a half he was diagnosed with a hip condition called Perthes Disease. This affected his lower spine, and ability to walk, and resulted in him having his first operation at the age of seven.

After a traumatic accident in 1989 Pete had to change jobs, moving to Nottinghamshire to work in 1990. Pete became a wheelchair user in 1992 after it was no longer possible to wear his prosthetic leg, and this led to him being medically retired in 1993.

This was a blessing-in-disguise as Pete was able to retrain in 1995, starting his training for Lay Ministry within the Church of England. He was licensed in 1997 and is still active to this day.

Sport has played a huge part in Pete’s life, as he has played Amputee football for Yorkshire and Humberside, swam for Sherwood Seal Swimming club and played wheelchair basketball for 18 years.

In 2001 Pete started coaching in swimming and became a mentor for a project called Sport Direct, which kick-started his career in sports development. He ran the project for over three years and in 2006 became the Sports Development Officer for Disabled People, fulfilling this role until 2017. Pete is qualified as a sports coach for several sports and is a tutor in Safeguarding and Inclusion. Pete has been an Inclusive Activity Programme Tutor for the Activity Alliance since 2019, and says of his motivation behind this:

“My drive for this was that as a child I was excluded from doing sport at school. My ambition is that everyone is able to play sport if they wish to.
I want everyone to see the person and not the disability. My passion is to educate and raise awareness about having disabled people involved in physical activity.”
And of his new role as a tutor on our online training course:

“I am excited to be working with WheelPower and delivering their courses, over the years I have been involved with the work that WheelPower does, they are a great advocate for wheelchair users and for sports.”

Mark Bullock – Inclusive Sports Development Advisor | Coach | Tutor | Mentor 

Mark has more than 30 years experience in Paralympic/disability sport, sports development & the broader social impact of sport. He is passionate about diversity and inclusion, wellbeing, healthy lifestyles & nutrition. He is an experienced leader, manager, coach and now a consultant working with a number of organisations to promote and develop inclusive sport. He has travelled to more than 80 countries developing wheelchair tennis & attended four Paralympic Games & two Olympics in various capacities from coach to Technical Delegate.   He has worked at all levels of disability and inclusive sport as a coach, administrator and leader.

He has extensive experience of delivering award winning sports programmes in developing countries. He also managed the largest public tennis centre in the UK and delivered community tennis programmes in two cities. Mark is an experienced public speaker having spoken at numerous conferences all over the world. He is a member of the University of Nottingham Sports Board & is also a mentor to current students and has won several awards from the University.

He was a member of International Paralympic Committee Paralympic Games Committee & was a regular delegate to the IPC Sports Council and General Assembly over a number of years. He now writes a regular blog on inclusive with sport & physical activity being the central theme. Mark is active himself playing football, tennis, running and practicing yoga.

He is a pioneer in inclusive sport and is always seeking to find ways to increase opportunities for disabled people to participate in sport.  He was one of the first coaches to get involved in wheelchair tennis and now he is at the forefront of developments of blind tennis and tennis for people with profound and multiple learning disabilities.