New Love to Move sessions in Essex and London are having a big impact. Liz, a staff member at Peaceful Place said; “it’s given them their independence back, it’s given them their lives back. They have increased confidence, self-assurance, mental recall, and they are more emotionally positive. Their finger co-ordination is growing which means it is having a knock-on effect on their art and their creativity as a result. People are joining in with things in general more because their self-esteem is growing.”

Sport for Confidence

Sport for Confidence is a social enterprise organisation that utilises sport and physical activity as a preventative measure to enhance a person’s health and well-being. The Occupational Therapists and Coaches have trained as Love to Move deliverers and have set up Love to Move sessions in Leisure Centres across Essex and London.

The session has been running for 6-8 months now and many of the participants are bussed in from an activity centre called Peaceful Place, which aims to give people living with dementia, often diagnosed with young-onset dementia, sport, and exercise at least twice per week.
There are 24 participants in the session ranging in age from 35 up to 90 years old and most of them are up on their feet dancing by the end of the session.

Liz who works at Peaceful Place explained that when her group return after a Love to Move session, they chat more and socialise more with each other, the mood is ‘upbeat’ but also calmer in general. She said, “it’s not just uplifting for them [the participants], it lifts the staff up as well – we’ve seen the journey they have made.”

Life-changing Improvements

Megan, an Occupational Therapist, and the lead deliverer for the session today, said; “I’ve noticed a difference in their physical ability and cognition, they have the ability to follow along better and do more movements.”

Pat has been coming to the session with her carer for 4 weeks and has progressed from refusing to come into the room in her wheelchair on week one, to taking part for some of the session in her wheelchair in week two, to now walking through the door without a wheelchair and fully participating.

Jo has young onset dementia and Huntingdon’s disease and has been coming to the sessions for 6 months. Before, she was struggling to keep her arms and legs still, but now she has more control over them. Her confidence has grown so much, she participates fully in the whole session and even gets up to dance in the centre of the circle. After the session, Jo told Louise ‘I love it here, I love coming here!” When asked how Love to Move makes her feel, she said ‘happy!’ with a massive beaming smile.

Louise Roberts said “It was an absolute joy to see the Sport for Confidence Love to Move session – the participants and staff were so excited to share their experience of Love to Move with me and it was a truly overwhelming experience to hear what they had to share. Some participants said that they could not describe in words how much it meant to them and just wanted to thank me. This is exactly why we do what we do at the British Gymnastics Foundation. It was an honour to be there”.  

Sport for Confidence hope to set up more Love to Move sessions over the coming months and have now trained most of their staff to deliver the programme.

Contact Details
For more information about Love to Move please contact: Louise Roberts on 07739512197 or email [email protected]

A SPECIAL HARDSHIP GRANT ROUND FOR DISABLED BG MEMBERS ONLY, IS OPEN FOR APPLICATIONS FROM 7^th to 20^th March 2022

Hardship Grants for Disabled British Gymnastics Members

Who can apply for a Hardship Grant in this special funding round?

The grants in this round are only open to current disabled British Gymnastics members who are in significant financial hardship, causing them to be at risk of dropping out of gymnastics. We are very pleased to announce that we have £11,500 available to specifically support disabled British Gymnastics members in this round, and we would like to extend our most sincere thanks to The Peter Harrison Foundation for their most generous grant which has already enable us to support dozens of disabled members who are at risk of dropping out of gymnastics for financial reasons. As the Peter Harrison Foundation funding is restricted to disabled BG Members, non-disabled BG members are ineligible to apply in this round.

What is a hardship grant and when can I apply for one?

The Hardship Grants Programme is an initiative from the British Gymnastics Foundation and was initially designed to provide financial assistance to British Gymnastics members to help them continue participating in gymnastics through times of significant financial hardship. We have worked hard to make more funds available to deliver this special round of funding which supports disabled British Gymnastics members suffering financially in these difficult times. The grants can be used to help pay for the future costs of participating in gymnastics for individual participants. Applications can be made on the British Gymnastics Foundation website at britishgymnasticsfoundation.org/how-we-can-help/hardship/.

Applications will open on 7^th March at 12noon; and will remain open until midnight on 20^th March.

British Gymnastics Foundation will NOT fund any of the following in this grants round:

• British Gymnastics members who are deemed to be financially capable of/or have the means to fund their involvement in gymnastics.
• Non-disabled British Gymnastics Members
• Any person who has made a false claim in the past.
• Gymnasts in receipt of UK Sport Lottery funding.
• British Gymnastics staff members.

It is extremely important that as a gymnastics community, we are all there to support those who are most in need and at risk of dropping out of gymnastics completely. We treat fraudulent claims very seriously and we strongly urge those who have the means to get back to gymnastics, to not apply as doing so may result in charity funds not being available to support someone else who is in desperate need of our help.  The full Hardship Grants Criteria can be found at: https://britishgymnasticsfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/BGF-Hardship-User-guide-for-CRM-Portal.pdf

Once you have applied, what happens next?

At the end of March and in early April, we will be working hard to review all applications for funding; aiming to review all applications and notify each applicant of our award decision in April.

We must stress that any applications which are not completed by midnight on the 20^th March 2022 (this includes a fully completed application endorsement), will not be considered for an award. We therefore strongly advise that applicants contact your endorser early to ensure your application is completed on time. If anyone has difficulty in completing their application, please contact us at: [email protected] to avoid disappointment. We will fully consider each individual case and we are committed to ensuring that no disabled British Gymnastics member drops out of gymnastics due to financial hardship.

We’re giving away two special family tickets to next year’s Artistic Gymnastics British Championships in Liverpool, 24^th – 27^th March.

We have two sets of best seats in the house tickets for families of two adults and two children to give away: one for Saturday and one for Sunday.

To be in with a chance of winning you will need to enter our raffle. Just text the word FOUNDATION to 70215. You will then receive a text back asking how many times you’d like to enter the raffle.

• For one chance to win, reply ONE to enter once and donate £5
• For two chances, reply TWO to enter twice and donate £10
• For four chances, reply FOUR to enter four times and donate £20

You can also enter without giving a voluntary donation and receive one entry by adding NODONATION after your message.

The final date for entries is 11:59am on Friday 14^th January 2022

For more on our Foundation’s text competition service, see the terms and conditions.

We need your support
After a difficult two years, our Foundation has been working harder than ever to ensure that people remain supported during the pandemic.

Since March 2020, there’s been a 2,900% increase in demand for Hardship Grants. To date, we have supported everyone whose application was approved, with £173,198 worth of personal awards being granted to 514 individuals, helping them to stay in gymnastics.

On top of this, we have evolved our Love to Move programme, delivering sessions face-to-face and online. From April 2020 to February 2021, we delivered over 200 sessions online, reaching 100,000 viewers. On average, each of our Love to Move trainer delivers 50 sessions a year, supporting hundreds of people in care homes and community centres across the UK.

As a result of the pandemic, we need your support in order to carry on delivering the initiatives that they deliver.

Patrick Bonner, Head of the British Gymnastics Foundation commented: “The levels of hardship in our community have never been greater and some of the situations that we have seen our applicants facing are truly heart-breaking. We are working really hard to support all those that need our help, but now we need help from the gymnastics community to raise more funds, or we simply won’t be able to support everyone who needs our help!”

How your payment will make a difference
No matter if you pay £5, 10 or £15, towards the draw, your money will help our Foundation to change someone’s life.

For example, £50, could fund the assessment of a brand-new Love to Move deliverer, or pay a young gymnast’s club fees for two months.

We’re working with easyfundraising to help British Gymnastics clubs raise extra funds.

easyfundraising is a platform that turns online shopping into donations for good causes including sports clubs.

easyfundraising works with over 6,000 online retailers including Amazon, John Lewis, eBay, Decathlon, Wickes, Sports Direct, Sainsbury’s, and many more, who will all donate to your club to say thank you for shopping with them. This means that every online purchase can mean more – more equipment, more support, and more opportunities for your club.

As part of our partnership with easyfundraising, we will benefit from a small commission when clubs we refer sign up.

Any money that is raised from commission through easyfundraising will be reinvested back into our Foundation’s programmes and initiatives including the Hardship Grants Programme, providing financial assistance to British Gymnastics members in need, and Love to Move, a seated gymnastics programme that helps older people living with Alzheimer’s.

Sports clubs and teams have taken a share of over £4.4 million since easyfundraising first began, and other good causes have taken a share of £35 million

Your club could win £250!

Thanks to easyfundraising, they’re giving clubs the chance to win a £250 donation this Christmas. To be in with a chance of winning, clubs just need to register via the button below. If your club is already raising funds with easyfundraising, simply raise a donation to be included.

Three steps for club managers to start earning:

Here’s three steps to help you get going.

• Register your club with easyfundraising – this only takes a couple of minutes.
• Book a free one-to-one call with a gymnastics club coach for a quick demo of the easyfundraising site.
• Share your page with everyone associated with your club, so they can start supporting you every time they shop online and earn a £5 bonus when they reach their first £5 donation milestone.

Register your club by 11.59pm on Wednesday 1^st December 2021, and one club will be in with a chance of winning a £250 donation. For more information including FAQs and terms and conditions, click here.

Applications for our next round of special Hardship Grant funding is now open to support members at risk of dropping out of the sport.

The Hardship Grants Programme is an initiative designed to provide financial assistance to British Gymnastics members to help them continue participating in gymnastics through times of significant financial hardship. Due to the pandemic, we have worked hard to make more funds available for the Hardship Grant Programme, to deliver special rounds of funding to British Gymnastics members suffering financially in these difficult times.

Since March 2020, we have seen a 2,900% increase in demand for Hardship Grants. To date, we have supported everyone whose application has been approved, awarding £173,198 in grants to 514 individuals, helping them to stay in gymnastics.

In total, since 2015, the Hardship Grant Programme has funded 839 individuals, spending a total of £288,397 on personal awards.

This, the fourth round of Covid-19 recovery Hardship Grants is open from today (Monday 18th October), so if you are a British Gymnastics member who will drop out of gymnastics without our financial assistance, please apply as soon as you can.

The closing date for applications will be midnight on 31^st October.

Hardship Grants for disabled gymnasts
As part of this special round of Hardship Grants, we are pleased to announce that in addition to our general pot of funding, an extra £18,000 will be available to specifically support disabled members.

We would like to extend our most sincere thanks to The Peter Harrison Foundation for their most generous grant which has enabled us to support disabled members who are at risk of dropping out of gymnastics for financial reasons.

Who is eligible and how do I apply?
Our Hardship Grants are open to current British Gymnastics members who are in significant financial hardship and who are at risk of dropping out of gymnastics as a result of coronavirus.

We will NOT fund any of the following:

• Members who are deemed to be financially capable of/or have the means to fund their involvement in gymnastics
• Any person who has made a false claim in the past
• Gymnasts in receipt of UK Sport Lottery funding
• British Gymnastics staff members

It is extremely important that as a gymnastics community, we are all there to support those who are most in need and are at risk of dropping out of gymnastics completely. We treat fraudulent claims very seriously and we strongly urge those who have the means to get back to gymnastics, to not apply as doing so may result in charity funds not being available to support someone else who is in desperate need of our help.

See full Hardship Grants Criteria  

To make an application, simply fill out our Application Form via the link below.

Make an application

What happens after I’ve applied?
We will be reviewing all applications in November and will notify each applicant of their award decision in December.

We must stress that any applications which are not completed by midnight on 31^st October (this includes a fully completed application endorsement), will not be considered for an award. We therefore strongly advise that applicants contact their endorser early to ensure their application is completed on time. If anyone has difficulty in completing their application, please contact us at: [email protected] to avoid disappointment.

There will likely be many more applications than is usual, so please bear with us as we work through this. We will fully consider each individual case and we are committed to ensuring that no British Gymnastics member drops out of gymnastics due to financial hardship.

Help those living with dementia, by walking over 10,000 steps every day this July!

Take part in Love to Move for Dementia and challenge yourself to walk 10,000 steps each day in July to raise money for the British Gymnastics Foundation and support our Love to Move programme, our seated movement and cognitive enhancement programme aimed at older people from 55 to 105.

Love to Move for Dementia

Date: 1^st July – 31^st July, 2021

Challenge: Reach 10,000 steps every day and fundraise for the British Gymnastics Foundation

Location: In the comfort of your own environment

How to get involved: Follow this link to be directed to our ‘Love to Move for Dementia’ Virgin Money Giving Event Page and click on ‘Start fundraising’.

You will then be prompted to sign in/ sign up if you’ve not registered with Virgin Money before. Once you’ve done this you’re ready to go and you can start to share your fundraising page with your friends and family.

How your fundraising will help us

Our Love to Move programme particularly benefits people living with dementia and other cognitive disease and your support could help us train more Love to Move deliverers, provide more sessions to those in need, and expand our research in adapting the programme to tackle early-onset dementia.

Here’s how a small amount of fundraising could make a difference:

• £50 could fund an additional Love to Move session in a care home
• £100 could pay for 2 Love to Move community sessions
• £300 would pay to train a Love to Move deliverer

With each Love to Move trainer delivering an average of 50 sessions a year, you could support hundreds of people just by reaching 10,000 steps for every day of July.

Patrick Bonner, Head of the British Gymnastics Foundation said: “Over the last five years, Love to Move has helped thousands of participants living with dementia to improve cognitive function and develop physical skills to help with everyday tasks.

“Since the pandemic hit, the pressure on the social care system has grown and we want to be part of the solution, helping people to live at home independently for longer and improve their quality of life by engaging with more care homes and community groups through our seated gymnastics programme.”

How do I reach 10,000 steps every day?

There are so many ways to reach your 10,000 steps per day. Of course, you can increase the amount of walking you do each day but here are some other ways you can incorporate our challenge into your daily routine:

• Walk a little extra on your weekly food shop
• Dance around the kitchen while you cook up a feast
• Take the dog for an extra walk
• Do some gardening
• If you are commuting to work then why not try getting off a bus or train stop early, or parking further away to give you access to more steps
• Take the stairs rather than the lift
• And if you’re working from home, set a timer every hour and take on a few jumping jacks or jogging on the spot for 5-10mins at a time
• Get out and about at lunchtime and watch the steps naturally trickle in
• Take up running as a new hobby and you’ll be hitting over 5000 steps
• Convert your daily exercise class into steps, whether its online or in person
• Meet a friend for a socially distanced walk

Is there a total I need to reach?

There is no fundraising target but, as a token of appreciation, all fundraisers raising over £100 will receive a British Gymnastics Foundation T-shirt once the event has been completed. By fundraising over £300 you will receive a British Gymnastics Foundation Certificate.

*When setting up your Virgin Money Giving Fundraising page, please make sure you opt in to marketing communications from us so that we can send you your T-shirt and certificate.

For any further queries, see our FAQs at the bottom of the page.

More on Love to Move

A recent study from the Evaluator in 2020 found that 100% of carers who have experienced the Love to Move programme with their groups would recommend the programme to others, having found understanding, companionship and respite through engaging with the Foundation’s sessions.

Since the programme’s inception in 2015, the Foundation has helped 440 people to come through the Love to Move training course to deliver the session, however with so much potential, more support from our fundraisers is needed at this crucial time to keep the momentum going. The pandemic has forced people to stay at home and stay safe at the consequence of general fitness and mobility suffering. Unfortunately, as our elderly population has been affected the most, the Love to Move programme is now more important than ever before.

Join us this July; get your body moving, up your step count and pledge to tackle dementia head on by walking 10,000 steps for every day for the month of July.

Contact us

If you have any questions please see our FAQs or email [email protected]

After four months of weekly sessions, Jan and Martin are enjoying the benefits of Love to Move.

The couple from Northwich, Cheshire have been part of a pilot scheme with the Alzheimer’s Society in Cheshire where Love to Move sessions have been running during the winter lockdown over Zoom.

Love to Move is a seated movement and cognitive enhancement programme based on fundamental gymnastics movements and is aimed at older people from 55 to 105. Love to Move particularly benefits people living with dementia or other cognitive disease.

Martin lives with early onset dementia (PCA) which affects his sight.

“Initially I was unsure whether he would be able to participate in the programme and whether it would be beneficial for him,” said Jan.

“He did find the first session quite challenging, and it made me more aware of some limitations he had – particularly in relation to fine motor skills and upper body flexibility.

“Our course leader, Nicole was quick to recognise his difficulties and worked with us on a 1:1 basis to overcome these.

“With Nicole’s constant praise and encouragement, Martin soon gained in confidence and we were able to work at our own pace adopting mirroring to aid his sight difficulties.

Despite early difficulties, Jan started to see Martin progress over the weeks with improvements with certain exercises along with his timing of movements with music.

“In such a short time, Martin has made really good progress with the activities which has had a knock-on effect in his everyday living. I have noticed how it has become easier for him to raise his arms when dressing and he is now able to fasten some smaller buttons. It also has a mood enhancing effect. On occasions we might have had a stressful start to the day, but Martin always leaves the session with a smile on his face!

“I enjoy the sessions too! They have really challenged my own thinking and I love sharing some of the activities with friends and family!”

Nicole, one of the British Gymnastics Foundation’s Love to Move deliverers added: “It has been a pleasure working with Martin and Jan.

“They join my class every week and they continue to practice in their own time different parts of the Love to Move programme.

“The encouragement and positivity from Jan helped Martin gradually build the flexibility and coordination skills needed to make everyday tasks easier.”

This week (17^th – 23^rd May) is Dementia Awareness Week. According to the Alzheimer’s Society, nearly 1 million people live with dementia in the UK and their families are struggling to get the support and care that they need and deserve.

The British Gymnastics Foundation has helped 440 people to come through the Love to Move training course to deliver the programme to thousands of people living with dementia across the country.

See more about our Love to Move programme below.

For the last two years, Robert and Marion from Brampton, Cambridgeshire have been enjoying the benefits of our Love to Move programme.

Love to Move is a group movement class that helps to improve strength, flexibility, finger dexterity, core stability and cognitive enhancement, particularly with elderly people, and people living with dementia, supporting independent living and a better quality of life.

In his younger days, Robert was a keen swimmer, water polo player and wind surfer and he later went on to volunteer and run swimming and windsurfing clubs in his local community. Unfortunately, in 2018, Robert was left with severe dementia after a knee operation. According to his wife, Marion, Robert did not know who she was or where he was and one of his knees was left permanently bent.

Robert’s condition was picked up by a doctor that Marion went to see. During one of Robert’s appointments, they were recommended to go and find relevant exercise classes and that’s where they came across Love to Move.

“I knew I was in the right place immediately,” Marion began. “There was a cheerful welcome and I found that I vaguely knew one or two people.

“It soon became a lifeline. Somewhere to discuss what had happened and not feel an outsider.

“Robert was always happier afterwards. It also helped him accept his plight. It helped him to go out with friends, as a couple we were able to go out for lunch. Something we had not done since his op.”

Towards the end of 2019, Robert’s condition deteriorated and when the pandemic struck in March 2020, all Love to Move sessions were suspended.

In response to the national lockdown, all sessions became available online on Zoom and our Facebook page.

“It was a relief when they started. They are good and they help make sure Robert does as much as he is able to.”

Although Robert’s dementia is very limiting, Marion and Robert continue to take part in the online classes.

This week (17^th – 23^rd May) is Dementia Awareness Week. According to the Alzheimer’s Society, nearly 1 million people live with dementia in the UK and their families are struggling to get the support and care that they need and deserve.

For every pound invested in Love to Move, there is a social return on investment of £28.24.

The programme is flexible and easy to introduce and our research finds that 100% of carers who have experienced Love to Move would recommend our sessions.

See more about our Love to Move programme below.

Before and during lockdown, the benefits of Love to Move have been felt by a couple in Cambridge.

George and Chris first started taking part in Love to Move in 2017, as part of a community class introduced in St Ives, Cambridgeshire.

The seated programme helps people to keep active and healthy as they age; promoting mental wellbeing by enabling friendship to reduce social isolation; and creating opportunities for all to enjoy an activity through supportive networks.

At the time they joined the class, George was living with dementia and struggled physically and verbally.

Qualified Love to Move Deliverer, Kim Hall, said: “At first, I positioned George opposite myself in the sessions so that he could easily follow me. His partner Chris sat next to him to support him one to one.

“At first George couldn’t follow me at all so I would frequently work one to one with him during the session, working directly in front of him. This gradually began to change and eventually George did try and mirror the movements that he was able to do.”

Over time George grew to love the sessions that he and Chris attended regularly, often arriving early to chat and share stories with the other carers and individuals living with dementia within the group.

When Covid-19 hit in March last year, the Love to Move sessions moved online. With no device available to access the classes, George and Chris were unable to take part. It wasn’t until five months later that Kim was able to resume contact with them.

With lockdown still taking place, Kim decided she would take matters into her own hands: “I sadly discovered that George had deteriorated a great deal during the lockdown.

“I arranged to visit George and Chris at their home, working with George from his back garden, so as to maintain a safe distance from them, without any physical contact with them both. Chris would sit George on a chair by the patio doors and I sat in the garden to work with him.

“Chris was overjoyed when we found that despite George’s deterioration over the lockdown and the fact I hadn’t seen him for five months, that he reacted to the music from the sessions and the movements. Despite a break of five months, he remembered so much.

“We continued the weekly sessions from the garden despite the weather, with me sitting in the rain in a pop-up tent!”

George then unfortunately deteriorated further before testing positive for Covid where he was admitted to hospital for a month. Incredibly, George pulled through and is now back home, reunited with Chris, albeit on palliative care.

During the month in which they couldn’t see one another, Kim worked with Chris to help master Zoom, so that she could continue to take part in online Love to Move classes. This also meant that when George returned home, he too was able to listen to the sessions.

Love to Move has been shown to offer great benefits for those in palliative and end of life care, particularly for someone who has a real connection with the sessions.

“Chris initially propped the iPad up on the end of Georges bed so he could see and hear. At the beginning of the class George waved to everyone and joined in with little sections, even making some of the letters of the alphabet section with his arms managing the letter ‘L’ and the letter ‘T’ showing a ‘thumbs up sign’.

“To see them both smiling and sharing something positive with each other and others has been a very humbling experience.”

This week (17^th – 23^rd May) is Dementia Awareness Week. According to the Alzheimer’s Society, nearly 1 million people live with dementia in the UK and their families are struggling to get the support and care that they need and deserve.

We believe Love to Move can help to support this need. A recent study found that 100% of carers would recommend Love to Move – carers have found understanding, companionship and respite due to the programme.

After a year of doing Love to Move, Mike from Cambridgeshire has managed to develop his speech through regular engagement in the programme.

Mike, who was diagnosed with early onset dementia seven years ago, lives with his wife, Lesley near Huntingdon.

The couple started our Love to Move programme just after the first national lockdown last year. They have been taking part in weekly sessions with one of our deliverers, Kim Hall who has noticed a considerable improvement with Mike’s speech and physical abilities.

“Initially, Mike was very limited in what he could do,” Kim began. “He struggled with the rhythm, coordination and bilateral asymmetry sections however, he was still really engaged with the programme and with help from Lesley, he followed along with my sessions.”

“After a few months of taking part in sessions a few times a week, Mike began to verbalize in sections of the class. He began to sing some of the songs and began repeating words that Lesley and myself where saying. Mike then developed into being able to say words independently during the class. He began to find words for each letter of the alphabet particularly focusing on names and then countries and he can now independently say a word for every letter sometimes even managing two words. A few weeks ago, Mike actually said ‘I cannot find a word for that letter’, the first time I have heard him say a sentence!”

“Mike has now really improved physically. Lesley was previously a PE teacher so her support and input has been extremely valuable as we have pushed the boundaries physically with Mike.”

Lesley added: “Over the last few months, it has been noticeable that my husband is responding more to certain parts of the programme.”

“He actively listens to when the group are chatting; this being one of the few opportunities he has to ‘socialise’.”

“His enjoyment of the programme is evident in his concentration and his efforts to replicate the movements, actions and words.  He has always been a physically active person and this programme is helping to maintain this when other activities he used to participate in are no longer possible.”

This week (17^th – 23^rd May) is Dementia Awareness Week. According to the Alzheimer’s Society, nearly 1 million people live with dementia in the UK and their families are struggling to get the support and care that they need and deserve.

The British Gymnastics Foundation has helped 440 people to come through the Love to Move training course to deliver the programme to thousands of people living with dementia across the country.

See more about our Love to Move programme below.