DAME DENISE SEES FOUNDATION TEAM AND BENEFICIARIES AT WORK
The Matt Hampson Foundation team were honoured to welcome Olympic champion Dame Denise Lewis to the Get Busy Living Centre this week.
Winner of the Olympic heptathlon in Sydney in 2000, Dame Denise has been a regular in the media since sporting retirement, working as presenter and pundit at four Olympic Games up to 2024. She is now president of Commonwealth Games England and president of UK Athletics.
“I’ve met Matt and played in Mike Tindall’s golf day a couple of times,” she said, “but the Foundation video last year really struck a chord and compelled me to come and see what it does.”
After meeting Matt and the team, Denise toured the Centre’s facilities and was able to see and hear about the plans for an extension to welcome even more beneficiaries.
She said: “The words ‘changing people’s lives’ can be used loosely but what I have witnessed today with the facilities, the people involved in the Foundation, the team, the human interest stories, it all makes sense – why what the Foundation does it is so important and why it is so important to help people rebuild their identity and their purpose after serious, life-changing injury.
“I’ve been struck by the tranquility of being here and the warmth of the individuals because I cannot imagine what it feels like having your world blown apart by injury. But I can imagine that you want to find peace again and engage with people who understand what you are going through and I get a sense of that because they care. They understand and their purpose is to make you feel well, not just physically but mentally and to have that resolve to keep going.”
As well as an Olympic title, Lewis collected a bronze medal in 1996 and was twice Commonwealth champion, a European champion and two-time World Championship silver medallist in the heptathlon.
