Firhill Youth Project and Community Sports (SCIO) is a charity which aims to positively impact lives in the North Glasgow community through the promotion of a range of accessible, affordable, and sustainable opportunities for local young people (and on occasion the wider community) to participate, coach, or volunteer in rowing, kayaking, canoeing, and other sport, and physical activity related opportunities at the Firhill Basin in North Glasgow.

Firhill Youth Project and Community Sports Hub (SCIO) works in partnership with Scottish Rowing, the governing body for the sport of Rowing in Scotland, and Glasgow Life (Glasgow Sport), the local public authority for sport in the Glasgow City Council area. Firhill Youth Project and Community Sports Hub (SCIO) also works in direct partnership with Partick Thistle Football Club and Glasgow Kayak Club, the hubs key partner clubs.

The following two positions are currently being recruited:

• Project Coordinator
• Lead Activity Coach

In his own words, Ross Paterson documents his journey in sport that has led to him being selected to represent Team Scotland in Athletics in the upcoming Commonwealth Games.

Name: Ross Paterson 

Disability: Cerebral Palsy (Hemiplegia) 

Region: Paisley 

Club: Red Star AC/Kilbarchan AAC 

Coaches: John Kinder/Alasdair Barker/Ricky Miell 

I was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at 10 months of age. My disability affects the strength, coordination and control of the right hand side of my body.  

Throughout my childhood and from as early as I can remember, I was always at Hospital between physiotherapy, speech and language therapy and sessions for anxiety as I progressed through primary school. I was always treated differently by the teachers and was never given an opportunity to compete at sport. I remember trying out for the school football team when I was in primary six and being devastated not being selected for the team. I wanted to get involved in sport and I loved football, I wanted to be like my heroes that I watched on a Saturday at St Mirren Park but even at that age for my teachers it wasn’t about taking part it was about winning and to them I wasn’t good enough to be in the team. This really knocked my confidence within the school environment as I saw other boys training and developing friendships that I was excluded from as they went onto play in the school team. 

My love for football was evident and at my physio sessions at Hospital the physio realised that she could get me to do any of my exercise routine if she involved a ball. Through my Physio, I was put in touch with a disability football team, called West of Scotland Football Club for the Physically disabled. This opened up a whole new world of sport for me and meant that I could be involved with a Team which I had never experienced before. I excelled in the team and despite being the youngest in the team, I was accepted. 

I progressed within football to training with the development team for the Scotland FA Cerebral Palsy Team. 

I loved sport as it gave me a sense of worth being able to play and compete with other ambulant players.  

I first got involved in athletics when my football team were invited to take part in an athletics competition by Red Star AC. I really enjoyed it, it was a great day, and a coach approached my parents and I at the competition as said I should get involved in Athletics. I joined Kilbarchan AAC before joining Red Star AC and between football and athletics sport was full on for me and my parents who were my full-time taxi! I continued to progress in both sports. 

In 2014, I was selected by Scotland CP football to compete in an Under 19 competition in Ireland and then again in the World CP Championships in Nottingham, where for me playing against and setting up the Scotland goal was a highlight. I had been selected for the athletics team as well, but at this point I had chosen football over athletics as I thought the opportunity to play football in a major competition wouldn’t happen very often. 

About three years later, I took the decision to concentrate on my athletics career and gave up playing football. It was a hard decision but the right decision for me at the time. 

Things progressed very quickly for me after making that decision and I was invited into the GB athletics development academy and I was selected for the European Championships in Berlin where on my debut for the senior GB Team, I won silver in the T38 400m. It was an experience that I will never forget and the whole GB set up from start to finish was absolutely brilliant. To date this has been my greatest sporting achievement and one that I am extremely proud of. 

To be selected for Scotland and have the opportunity to compete in what will be my first Commonwealth Games in Birmingham is a dream come true. My journey to make the qualifying standard hasn’t been an easy one, I was due to compete in Dubai at the beginning of the year and fell ill with COVID-19 meaning that I couldn’t travel. 

Chasing legal winds and times in a WPA ranked event in the collapsing time frame has been stressful and I took it down to the wire by gaining the time that I needed in the very last competition before the deadline.  

When I got the call to say I had made the Team, I felt a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders, but I suppose that shows how much I wanted the opportunity and how much it means to me to compete in a major competition for my Country. 

My ambition for the Commonwealth Games is a simple one, I want to compete to the best of my ability, to make my friends, family and coaches John, Ricky and Alasdair proud. I want to enjoy the whole event from the holding camp, the athlete’s village and taking my place on the starting line with the best T37/38 athletes in the Commonwealth – put simply I want to enjoy the whole experience and make great memories. 

My experience in sport from a young age was not particularly great with teachers who were uninspiring. My message to up and coming athletes of the future is, concentrate on your ability not your disability. Let your talent define you, no matter what hurdles life puts up in front of you, with hard work and determination you can overcome them and go onto inspire your own generation. 

On May 27th 2022, I set out from Bowness-on-Solway to complete the Hadrian’s Wall trail in my wheelchair – something that has never been done before.

Travelling 8-9 miles a day, ten gruelling days later I finally finished at Wallsend on Sunday 5th June. With the help of my core team, I made history and became the world’s first person to complete the trail in a wheelchair, whilst raising vital funds for a charity close to my heart. Many people have asked how this all came about and why, my answer to this is that it all started as an impossible dream.

Many people dream of completing Hadrian’s Wall 84-mile trail and I was no different. I have wanted to do the trail since I was 12 years old after visiting a section of the wall during a trip to Carlise. I have always been a big fan of history and whilst visiting some of the Roman museums my mind was set.

However, I had a major obstacle to overcome – I am a wheelchair user. No one had ever managed to complete the full route in a wheelchair as the trail itself is not accessible. So, at the age of 12 and although it was my dream, I knew it was impossible. My mindset changed in 2019 after my All Terrain 20k fundraiser around some of Shetland’s toughest terrains (St Ninian’s Isle and Fethaland) which I completed using one of Ability Shetland’s mountain trikes. It got me thinking that maybe my dream to complete Hadrian’s Wall trail could be possible and, from then on, I knew that I wanted to at least give it a go.

I wanted to fundraise for Ability Shetland as a thank you for them supporting me throughout most of my life, especially for introducing me to a mountain trike. The mountain trikes changed my life as, without them, I wouldn’t be able to get outside and would never have started fundraising or doing what I do now. We set a date and put the word out for a good support team and I was delighted that, not only my mother Kim and my Uncle Chris would be part of the team, but that Ability Shetland wanted to help out too. YHA The Sill offered to provide the team with accommodation and Ridgegear offered to help out with the safety aspects of the challenges such as ropes and harnesses.

The hardest part about organising this whole challenge was actually anticipating the obstacles that we would tackle as we couldn’t visit the wall beforehand due to the location being far away from Shetland. We were very lucky to be joined by a fellow Ordnance Survey Champion Dave Wilson who lived not far from Hadrian’s Wall path and is a tour guide. Dave went above and beyond to make sure we were prepared and became one of the key team members. Although he had completed the trail several times, he had to recce the whole trail from a completely new perspective as he had never considered it from an accessible point of view.

For months we trained in Shetland with my family and also some of the core team by pushing myself 4-7 miles a day over different terrains and hills no matter the weather. We also practised using the harnesses for braking lines on some of the trickier terrains until the big day finally arrived. On May 27th 2022, I set out from Bowness-on-Solway to complete the Hadrian’s Wall trail in my wheelchair – something that has never been done before. Ten gruelling days later I finally finished at Wallsend on Sunday 5th June. With the help of my core team, I made history and became the world’s first person to complete the trail in a wheelchair.

The challenge itself I can only describe as a rollercoaster: literally – physically and mentally. Day 5 was definitely the worst and the lowest point not just for me but for the whole team. The weather was torrential rain, thunder, low-lying fog and if we tried to drop lower we ended up in really deep bog. We always knew Day 5 was the hardest section of the whole trail but the elements just made it worse. I injured my wrist and my leg and the whole team’s morale was so low. I came close to throwing the towel in and quitting on that day and I’m sure some of the team were thinking the same thing. It took a lot of self-reflection, speaking to friends and the team about what we had been through and what we still had ahead. In my mind I thought that it couldn’t get any worse than what we had all just been through. We put a call out to the local community for help and the next day we had a great turnout and, with their help and support, we got back out there on Day 6 and, although it was hard, we got through it together and the days just got better from there.

It was exhausting so we made sure to have a good breakfast everyday. We all carried a packed lunch and took time to stop and eat. There are some great tearooms and honesty fridges along the trail where we also filled up with sweet treats and replenished our water. I also had plenty pints of milk to keep me going and every evening we made sure to refuel with a big meal to ensure our energy levels were restored.

It still hasn’t quite sunk in yet, but I’m really glad I stuck with it, that I didn’t give up, and that we made it to the end. It’s hard to describe the feeling when you accomplish something that you didn’t think possible. It’s just an amazing feeling and a massive boost of confidence, with a fantastic sense of achievement knowing that I am the first person ever to accomplish this.

I am exhausted from the experience, but absolutely delighted that this challenge has so far raised £13,000 for Ability Shetland and that the money will go towards helping others in the local community to discover even more inclusive sports and activities, and reach their full potential.