By Charlotte, Events Administrator
A fantastic day of boccia was held on Saturday 8th February 2025 at UHI Perth which saw 23 individuals from Dumfries and Galloway all the way up to Aberdeen attending to participate in a fun and positive environment! The Women and Girls in Boccia day aims to encourage any women and girls with a physical or learning disability into the sport, so they can become more active, have fun and socialise. There is also the opportunity to partake in local and national competitions if they wish to progress further in the sport.
The event was coached and supported by women coaches and officials with three guest speakers. The day consisted of lots of fun skills and drills, and this was a good opportunity to network with other female boccia players and officials about their journey into boccia.
We were fortunate enough to be joined on the day by an expert panel for a question-and-answer session. The 3-person strong panel consisted of Claire Morrison, Sam Thomson and Charlotte Medley. Boccia UK coach Claire has a wealth of experience within the sport and recently coached leading Scottish athlete Kayleigh Brown to a Paralympic quarter-final despite Kayleigh only competing in the sport for 3 years. Meanwhile Sam Thomson has become one of the UK’s leading boccia officials regular attending competitions all over the country to support the competitions pathway at all levels. Finally, Charlotte Medley shared her range of experiences as a sibling-turned volunteer coach and official. All 3 shared their stories of their involvement in boccia, and different opportunities that boccia has provided for them. The main discussion highlighted that boccia becomes like a family where you are supported by others no matter who you are or where you are on your boccia journey. Boccia is a family and when you are taking part in boccia you are not someone’s sister, wife or daughter but you are your OWN PERSON.
After the question-and-answer session we moved onto games of boccia, during this some of our participants gave officiating a game of boccia a go and wow they were good!
We would like to take this opportunity to say a big thank you to our event sponsor Shepard Charted Surveyors. This day would not have been possible without their generous support. Thank you to all the players and volunteers who attended this event, we can’t wait to see everyone in our boccia community again soon.
Don’t hesitate to reach out to SDS if you would like to find out more about getting involved and trying boccia. Email: jonathan.kennedy@scottishdisabilitysport.com
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