JWT create a new and thought provoking ad campaign for Special Olympics

SPECIAL OLYMPICS GB AD CAMPAIGN FEATURED ATHLETES BIOGRAPHIES

MARK LEEDHAM
Ad: Mark was born with a serious ability
Age: 18, Redditch, Birmingham
Sport: Athletics

Sport
Mark first started with Special Olympics in Redditch at the age of 8. But this was focussed on team sports and Mark prefers to be a solo athlete. When he was 12, he joined the SO programme in Bromsgrove. Mark now competes in 100m and 200m sprint. At the GB National Summer Games at Glasgow in 2005 he won a gold medal for 100m, and was placed fourth in 200m sprint. Mark also does soft ball throw and standing long jump at which he recently won a bronze medal at a regional athletics event in Eton, Nr Windsor.

Mark trains one evening a week in athletics. He also builds up his muscles and improves his balance through regular 10-mile cycling sessions with his mum, for which he uses a specially adapted tricycle. He swims once a week.

Life
Mark lives with his parents. He has an older sister Dawn who is in her final year at university. She and Mark are very close so he misses her, but they talk sometimes on the phone. Mark attends a special school five days a week where activities include computer skills, cooking and gardening. He has proved a good chef and his family have enjoyed his spaghetti Bolognese and spiced rice.

Through the school Mark works one day a week at a plant nursery. They spotted his big talent for precision and have given him the delicate job of transplanting seedlings.

His father is a landscape architect and Mark also helps him with seedlings and potting in a big garden shed at home. Mark also loves to push the big petrol mowers but prefers to do it without the noisy engine. But he is facing this challenge and his father is confident he will learn to add this to his skills.

Mark’s memory skills can be extraordinary. Travelling by car to competition events a long distance from home he will remember a journey he’s made only once and prompt his father with directions.

Mark likes to watch DVD’s and to play with the buttons on the machine. He has worn out at least a dozen players in the past 5 or 6 years. His current favourite in music is a tape of Christmas songs. At home he likes to construct patterns with marbles and spell out with magnetic letters the names of all his family and friends.

Mark the Person
Mark is very outgoing, loves connecting with people and, although he has communication challenges, he doesn’t think twice about talking to anyone new he meets. He likes to laugh and has a great sense of humour.

Mark can be stubborn in his refusal to try things he is unsure about. But he impresses people with his courage to try most things. At an outward bound holiday last year he pushed his limits in some new and daunting activities – canoeing, rock climbing and abseiling. He was so exhilarated by abseiling he did it over and over.

Mark the Sportsman
Mark loves running. When competing he had developed a habit of starting off slow. But he can respond to a big event, and at the national games, he amazed his coach and parents by running from the off. His dad says when Mark goes, he goes. And in the tightest of competitions, he won through at the finishing line to take the gold medal. He and his family were “over the moon”.

One of Mark’s challenges is loud noise. He doesn’t like it and can be thrown by the starter’s gun in any stadium where the sound echoes. His way of dealing with this is to cover his ears with his hands.

BALJINDER DHILLON
AD: At an early age Baljinder was diagnosed with football on the brain
Aged 17 years Sandwell, Birmingham
Sport: Cricket. Table tennis, Swimming, athletics, cricket and football

Sport
Baljinder is very sporty and is keen to try anything. She has always been interested in cricket and football, playing both a lot. She is an avid watcher of cricket on TV with her brother Jaswinder and also plays with him. She has been taking part in sport for at least four years and became involved in Special Olympics over a year ago through her school teacher Norma Hyde who is also a SO coach.

Baljinder’s school has links with West Brom and Birmingham Cricket Club. Through them she has been with other students to see West Brom play. Her involvement with the SO cricket team has taken her to training sessions at Edbaston cricket ground. She competed with the mixed team at the SO national games in Glasgow in 2005 and won a trophy for individual performance. The school has a video of her training in Glasgow. She also swims, although not a strong swimmer and needs floats. She is currently focussing on the new sport of archery.

Life
Baljinder attends the Meadow School in Sandwell from Monday to Friday. She does volunteer work helping other students. She has done work experience at a nursery and is very good with babies. The nursery gave her a glowing report. At school she studies communication and IT, home skills and cooking, numeracy and performing arts. At the school she also took part in a Bollywood dance performance.

Baljinder goes once a week to a club which focuses on independence and takes members on weekly outings. Activities have included bowling and cinema. On another evening she learns beauty skills: hair, make-up, nails, footcare. She loves listening to Asian music, especially Bhangra. The school holds regular discos and Baljinder loves to dance. She took part in a Bollywood dance performance at the school. She likes to go to the temple every week. She is keen on shopping, particularly for clothes.

Baljinder the Person
Baljinder’s sister Ranjit says she is always smiling and helpful. Often she is the first to comfort anyone who is upset or crying. She is also very independent.

Baljinder the Sportswoman
The Special Olympics National Summer Games was Baljinder’s first big competition. She and her family attended the opening ceremony and found the whole event very emotional. When she is training or playing sport Baljinder has a strong focus. She is determined to get it right, do it well. She wants to win. She also keeps her team mates in line. If they are not paying attention or taking it seriously she can be a bit bossy with them, but is also very encouraging. Baljinder takes her love of sport everywhere. When she went with her family to Canada in summer Baljinder would take a ball out at every opportunity. When they go to a park she always take a football and encourages everyone to play.

ANDREW TAYLOR
Ad: Meet Andrew. He was born with a rare determination.
Aged: 27, Chester
Sport: Gymnastics (Now a coach)

Sport Andrew has been a Special Olympics athlete for the past 20 years and has won over 50 medals for gymnastics. He does floor exercises and vault, and has also sometimes competed in parallel bars. He trains once a week with the SO team at a Liverpool sports centre. For the past two years he has been helping to coach other SO gymnasts. He takes the team warm-ups and works with individuals on their routines.

Andrew is also a very good swimmer. He recently set himself the challenging target of completing 120 lengths in a sponsored swim event. This was to raise money to take the gymnastics team to France in April for a skills learning event. He had to push himself very hard towards the end but determination kept him going and he achieved his goal.

Life
Andrew lives with his parents, Paul a Methodist minister and Rosemary a primary school teacher. He has two younger brothers Mick and John (who also lives at home).

He works two and a half days a week at the B&Q store in Warrington, a job he’s held for the past 5 or 6 years. He was recently chosen as one of only four people from across Britain to feature in a national video promoting the contribution and achievements of employees with ‘disability’. His job includes monitoring stock and keeping the shelves filled. He is currently training to use the B&Q computer system.

Andrew is a big football fan and staunch Liverpool supporter. Most Saturdays he watches the TV soccer special and notes down the performances of all the local teams. He is the proud owner of a signed pair of gloves worn by Liverpool/England goalkeeping legend Ray Clements.

Andrew is a pretty good cook and sometimes helps to prepare family meals. He also enjoys playing pool at home with his brothers and likes to watch Sky music channels.

Andrew the Person
Andrew is described by his family and friends as warm, friendly, thoughtful and with a winning personality. He cares about how other people are and everyone gets on with him. He regularly puts his loose change in his dad’s collecting box for a local children’s hospital. He is very good at spontaneously expressing himself. When he was leaving his Liverpool church cookery group to move to Chester he made an unprepared speech and had people moved to tears.

Andrew the Sportsman
Muscle strength, agility and performing complicated sequences of movement are some of the strengths that have contributed to Andrew’s success in gymnastics. Since he swapped competing for coaching he still keeps fit and has recently bought an exercise machine.

But added to that is his dedication and commitment, and the many hours of hard work he is prepared to put in to achieving in his sport. He has a lot of drive and loves his sport, not only training and competing but being part of the team. If he finds anything difficult he shows no frustration, just a calm determination to work with the strengths and skills he has, and to keep trying until he succeeds. In competition events he never shows any sign of nerves. He is always going for gold !

ALISON KIDGER
Ad: At the age of 8 Alison developed a devastating backhand.
Age 32, Guisborough Sport: Tennis, swimming

Sport
Alison has been a Special Olympics athlete since the age of 10. She became involved through her headmistress at infants school. Her first sport was swimming and in her first ever competition she won a bronze medal. She is an excellent all-rounder in sport - swimming, gymnastics, tennis, football, and she is keen to try ice-skating. Although she features in the poster campaign as a tennis player, swimming is now her main sport.

Life
Alison lives with her mum and dad. She has one older brother Andrew who is a sergeant major in the Army.

Alison attends a local day centre one day a week. But two evenings at a drama group are her high point. Actors with a learning disability come to the group from all over the northeast and it has a reputation for excellence. After 16 months rehearsal, it recently staged Joseph and his Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat at the Darlington Civic Theatre. Alison was cast in the part played by Joan Collins in the West End - Mrs Potipar, the ‘Bad Woman’ who makes every effort to seduce Joseph. She loved it. And she won high praise from a Frenchman in the audience who described her performance as “So graceful, so beautiful”. The cast were given five standing ovations. Alison’s mum says taking part in the drama group has improved her speech a lot.

Alison the Person
Alison is very sociable. When there is something she wants to do, she has lots of confidence in herself. Her mum says she likes to think she can not only do anything, but do it better than anyone. She likes pop music, shopping for clothes and dancing. She has won awards for disco dancing. Alison has a lot of friends, many from the day centre but also those she’s met through Special Olympic events and some as far away as Wales. One of her greatest friends is Timmy, who played Joseph in the theatre production. Alison the Sportswoman Alison competed in the first national games in 1991 on the Isle of Wight but won her place in the team under the toughest of challenges. A month before selection she’d been told there would be no available places in her sport, gymnastics. But, if she could achieve competition standard in the dance-based rhythmic gymnastics she could go. Not only did Alison learn a completely different set of skills in four weeks, she won an astounding 5 gold medals plus the overall gold award. She went on to become World Champion.

Alison is very determined and competitive at her sport. She does suffer from competition nerves, especially in gymnastics where she is a solo performer. At the last World Games her mum says she was shaking before the event, but once the music starts she is fine