by DOCIAsport | Jun 10, 2024 | Insight, Monthly Insights, New 10
In 2021 in the midst of the pandemic and lockdown I hosted a Zoom call from my home in Sussex. At the other end of the country in Wigan, Lancashire, there were over forty people on the call interested to learn what the concept of a “Community Wellbeing Hub” could look...
by DOCIAsport | May 14, 2024 | Insight, Monthly Insights, New 10
It is seven years ago this month that I had my mental breakdown. My brilliant counsellor at the time told me she wasn’t surprised that I was severely depressed and suffering from panic attacks because as she said, “I’d had five years of vicarious trauma.” I had...
by DOCIAsport | Apr 24, 2024 | Insight, Monthly Insights, New 10
The Long Win – a feelgood story of Danielle Brown PLY MBE I first met Dani on a Skype call in late 2013. My first impression of her was here is a broken woman, a shell of who she really is. Her first impression of me was ‘not another bloody male, pale and stale sports...
by DOCIAsport | Apr 2, 2024 | Insight, Monthly Insights, New 10
Volunteering in sport – the essential but diminishing ingredient. “Get out” said my mother at her wits end. “Don’t come back till teatime and, you wait till your dad gets in.” Not the most auspicious start to 50 years in volunteering in a sector that has been an...
by DOCIAsport | Mar 19, 2024 | Insight, Monthly Insights, New 10
Soul – searching – here’s the evidence that I’ve found it! The response to my post last week across the social media platforms I use has been amazing, especially on LinkedIn. The commentary and feedback both in public and privately gave me both hope for the future and...
by DOCIAsport | Mar 8, 2024 | Insight, Monthly Insights, New 10
Soul-searching…..the results are in! Plato, who knew a thing or two, once said “The first and greatest victory is to conquer yourself.” and I have stared defeat in the eyes for years. But last year I hit the winner assisted by a fabulous team. I can now...
by DOCIAsport | Feb 20, 2024 | Insight, Monthly Insights, New 10
Do you remember this? The whole build up to the Games had been about Russia’s abuse of human rights and the suppression of the LGBTQ+ community (the doping scandal came later.) In 2013 as the CEO of the British Elite Athletes Association at the time I felt the GB...
by DOCIAsport | Feb 1, 2024 | Insight, Monthly Insights, New 10
This week sees the start of the 2024 Six Nations Rugby Championship. One of the anchors for me in the sporting calendar, taking me back to the early 1970’s when I made my first trip to Twickenham as a pimply youth to watch England play Ian Kirkpatrick’s All Blacks. My...
by DOCIAsport | Dec 8, 2023 | Insight, Monthly Insights
It took me over 20 years since graduating from Manchester Uni to work out what I wanted to be when I grew up! During that time I worked in the financial services industry and insuring the (then) British Athletes Commission was my passport into the sport and activity...
by DOCIAsport | Nov 28, 2023 | Insight, Monthly Insights
In April of this year my fantastic children took me to see a One Track Minds show. After one storyteller had been on stage I said to Jessica – “It’ll never happen but if I ever got the opportunity to do this I know what my story would be.” Lo...
