THE POWER of sport helped to improve the lives of hundreds of children in Manchester this summer when top athlete Diane Modahl MBE went for gold by hosting a morale-boosting sports summer camp.

Multiple gold medallist Diane and her husband, Olympic coach Vicente, secured the funds to deliver the five-week camp to children throughout the city. Targeting youngsters between nine and 16, the aim of the Diane Modahl Sports Foundation (DMSF) was to provide an active summer of physical activity and nutritious, healthy meals to some of society’s most vulnerable young people.

“The success of the summer camp has exceeded even our own expectations,” said Diane.

BRILLIANT

“I have a brilliant team, they are all people who look like our kids, talk like our kids and probably even live on the same street as them.

“The feedback we received from the parents was, ‘Thank you, we do not know where we would have taken our children if this didn’t exist.’ It’s been a brilliant success in terms of the partnerships we have created and we absolutely want to do this again next year, if we can get funding.”

The daily camp, which was hosted at Cedar Mount Academy in Gorton, was completely free for youngsters to attend. Participants engaged in a range of sports delivered by trained coaches, including football, athletics, boxing, dodgeball, dance, cricket, badminton, basketball and free play.

DMSF is a registered charity, which Diane and Vicente established in 2010. Hailing from a deprived community herself, Diane wanted to champion young people from disadvantaged areas across the North West, helping them to make the most of themselves in sport, education and employability.

One of the aims of the charity is to…

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