Megan – #MyStory

Megan

About Megan

Megan has cerebral palsy with athetoid movements, is profoundly deaf and has epilepsy. She was a twin born at 32 weeks, and cp was a result of meningitis at 5 weeks of age. Megan’s cp affects her speech and ability to write for long periods of time, and fatigue is an issue.

How it all started

Megan started playing football from an early age. A Liverpool and Port Vale fan, she decided she wanted to be part of a club, but at the time there were no local cp teams, and it would mean a long drive to play weekly.

In 2015 I (Mum) was a volunteer at the CPISRA World Games in Nottingham, helping out with the football tournament. Megan came along in a hope she would be inspired by other people with cp playing competitive sport, in fact she was lucky enough to be a mascot at one of the England football matches, and after watching, really wanted to be part of a team.

Playing experience

Shortly after this, a local football team for CP children was started (Stoke City Cerebral Palsy FC) by like minded parents which has been fantastic, more and more players are joining all the time. This has given Megan many amazing opportunities including playing at St George’s Park and we have also hosted a number of tournaments with the help of Cerebral Palsy Sport.

Megan is now also a member of the over 16 Stoke FC ability counts team which is fantastic but as a female and over 16 the opportunities are becoming limited and although she doesn’t mind being one of 2 females who play in this team, she would love to play in an all female cp team.

She has recently been selected to attend the next stage of the England Talent Pathway process, but as there are only provisions for hearing impaired females to progress any further, Megan can attend due to her ability, but is not there as a cp female player as there are no means to progress.

Coaching and Ambitions

Megan will be completing a level one coaching qualification and also coaching for players with disability to help support her younger team mates to who she is a role model. The FA are working to develop future opportunities alongside CP Sport with their regional hubs.

Advice to others

Megan would say to other females who love playing football or who want to try it ‘Don’t give up doing what you love. Let’s all try and get more girls playing football so we can play for England one day!’