Accessibility in London

Following on from my appearance on the ITV London news where I issued my challenge to the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, I had a very positive meeting with TFL and Whizz-Kidz today about the future of London transport and its accessibility. What really surprised me to learn at the meeting was, much of London is actually already partly accessible! However, it's not advertised to people outside (or even inside, it seems) of London. This, along with many other points were brought up and discussed between us, and it's going to be an exciting future, hopefully resulting in more disabled people being independent, confident and free when travelling in and around London. I've offered my help in working alongside TFL to promote and educate, so watch this space..

A new venture to share with you

Really pleased to be able to release the official announcement today regarding a new business I have been working on recently. Going forward, whilst I'm still competing, I'm going to be involved on an advisory basis, but am planning ahead for my future now.


Press Release - 17 Management

Having had many unpleasant experiences working with agents and managers; I am pleased to announce my involvement in a new sports management company, 17 Sports Management Limited.

17 will focus on the management of both established and developing talent across all sports. There are some good management companies out there, but there are also many that are not so reputable. I want to be able to help fellow sports people avoid the pitfalls and traps that I fell in to. I want them to benefit from my unfortunate experiences.

17 is a collaboration between myself, my manager Ian Byers and Boo Matthews. Whilst I remain a competing athlete, Ian will lead the business and I will be involved in an advisory role. From my own experience of working with Ian, I know that he always puts the interest of his client first. He firmly believes in creating the right environment for the athlete, to allow them to compete to their maximum ability, whilst taking on the responsibility for all their off track activities to free them to focus on their training and competing. The team at 17 have extensive business experience and I know that our clients will benefit from this along with my understanding of competing at the highest level.

Whether you are an established sports person, dissatisfied with your current management, an up and coming talent looking for representation, or just wondering if you need professional management, whatever your sport, follow us on Twitter @_17management take a look at our website www.17management.com and get in touch.

My new friend Rory

I am SUPER excited this week to introduce the newest member of #TeamHannah - 'Rory' the hand cycle, courtesy of Invacare (there is no reasoning behind the name Rory, it just felt right!).

The new equipment is going to help me massively over winter with my distance training, building my endurance management and helping me manage more mileage as I wont be sat on my legs, which does cause me problems at times, so - no excuses now!!

I cant thank Invacare enough for supporting my cross training!

Sorry about the photo, my hall way just isn't big enough for all my equipment! I'll get some better photos when I take him out for a spin!

Learning the game

I feel so lucky that I am in the fortunate position to be able to get the chance to do some really cool things.

I am really very grateful to NFL UK who enabled me to have the chance to visit Wembley Stadium again at the weekend to see the Detroit Lions v Atlanta Falcons game. It was so exciting to finally see a close game and I'm starting to understand it more every time I watch. I was backing Atlanta Falcons all the way and they were so close to that win only for everything to change in the final 4 seconds! Still a great day out and I reckon there may be a space on the cheerleading team for an additional member....!

Continuing the Legacy

I was honoured to be invited to speak alongside Dame Tessa Jowell this evening at the offices of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer for Whizz-Kidz, highlighting the massive steps that London 2012 made for disability, but also the long journey it still has to go on.

Seeing stars

Well, I'm just catching up after a wonderful weekend shared with friends. It all started with a trip to London and my first ever visit to see a West End show, what an experience!

My weekend ended with another show, this time at Wembley Arena at the Radio 1 Teen Awards where I was very star struck seeing all the people on the red carpet. Ella Henderson, Rizzle Kicks and Labrinth are just three of those I managed to get 'selfies' with.   

Oh and you'll be pleased to hear I managed to get some training in during the weekend too! No rest until (after) Rio. 

Yorkshire Marathon

Pushed myself way out of my comfort zone for the Yorkshire Marathon today. Although I was racing in the corporate relay and so not doing the whole 26.2 miles, my 6 mile leg very quickly turned into a 10 mile roll through the fog, as I reached my Passover point and my team mate was nowhere to be found! There were a few hairy moments, concerning some slippy pushrims on a wet up hill, a fast downhill into a sharp bend (I of course, ended in a bush) and fog so thick I could barely see my front wheel. But it was all for a great cause and little by little, I'm working my way up to the longer distances and building my confidence in road racing. It'll still be a few years until you see me do the full thing though! Big congrats to Bret Crossley who won the wheelchair race, to my crazy relay team mate, Danny Mills who carried on after his 5 mile leg to complete the full marathon, and of course everyone who ran today. For whatever cause or reason, you raised thousands and it was incredible to sit on the finish line and see streams of people with so much passion and emotion. I love you, Yorkshire. (Fyi, My team mate was on the toilet).

Boris Wheelchair Challenge - Update

Many of you will have seen or read about my challenge last week to The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, to spend a day trying to get about London in a wheelchair. I was very disappointed that Mr Johnson declined my challenge, but he did say that he would ask Transport for London (TFL) to work with me to gain further understanding of the issues regarding accessibility to transport.

Well, I am very pleased to tell you that, The Mayor is as good as his word, as this week I have been contacted by TFL to arrange for me to meet with their Managing Director, Vernon Everitt. I would like to thank The Mayor for facilitating the meeting with Mr Everitt which I will attend along with my manager and representatives from the Whizz Kidz charity. I will keep you all informed as to how we get on.

Road to Rio

700 days to go. 700 more chances to be better than yesterday!

Challenge Boris!

I was interviewed on the ITN news this evening to discuss the accessibility issues regarding public transport in London. I understand that the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson has pledged more funds to help, but to highlight the issue, I challenged the Mayor to spend a day in a wheelchair and to use public transport to get to his appointments! Will you help us #ChallengeBoris on Facebook and Twitter?

Meeting my Train!

Really excited, as I finally got to see "my" train today in a visit to St Pancras station! Thank you to all at South Eastern Railways who made this possible. The Hannah is the 'Javelin' service and is usually whizzing up and down between London and Kent.