Disability basketball team appeals for new players

A basketball team for adults with disabilities is appealing for more members so it can compete in tournaments.

Howden Warhorses Friends was set up in East Yorkshire in July 2024 and currently has eight members aged between 26 and 56 years old with disabilities including Down's Syndrome and brain injuries.

Katherine Dawson set up the group after her sister Helen, who has Down's Syndrome, was lonely and was not getting much physical exercise.

She said: "We just realised that sport has such a value in helping people connect and feel part of a team."

The 46-year-old, who is one of a small group of volunteers, said: "She was so lonely before and she found it really difficult. Just having this has been really good, just to see her have friends.

"She's got so much to give. I think sport allows her to do that in a way that meeting socially, in a pub setting, is just not something she finds easy to do. But get her on a court and she comes alive."

The group supports people with disabilities play basketball and gives them opportunities to make friends, have fun and get more physically active.

Helen said she loved playing basketball, especially as "it's a chance to meet my friends every week".

"I'm more energetic and better for it," she said.

"I'd love to compete. It would mean everything to me."

John Smithson was involved in a road accident in 2013 and said he had broken his neck in three places, as well as his left femur and ribs.

He said he had been unable to walk since the accident and he needed to use a wheelchair.

Mr Smithson, 32, has been a member of Howden Warhorses Friends for four months.

"I come here to exercise and to meet new people and also to get out of my house," he said.

"I love it. I didn't think being in a wheelchair would make it easy for me to play basketball but with the adjustable nets it makes it a perfect height for me to play."

The group is free to join and sessions run every Sunday morning at Read School in Drax.

Participants learn skills including passing, blocking, shooting and then play a game.

Ms Dawson said she hoped the club would grow to 15 players to allow it to enter competitive tournaments.

"We'd love to grow it," she said.

"Basketball is a sport that I think can easily be adapted. It's a team sport and I think it hopefully reduces people's sense of loneliness and isolation as a result."

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