Hannah Young, a member of BBS UK with Bardet-Biedl syndrome, participated in the IBSA World Games as part of the England Women’s cricket team. Hannah is 38 years old and lives in Suffolk with her husband Sean, her guide dog Archie, and her retired guide dog Diane. She was diagnosed with BBS in her late 20s and is visually impaired, struggles with managing her weight, and is affected mentally and emotionally by her diagnosis.
The 2023 IBSA (International Blind Sport Association) World Games were held in August at Birmingham University, thanks to a combined bid between British Blind Sport, UK Sport, Birmingham City Council, the University of Birmingham, and Sport Birmingham.
Before Hannah was diagnosed with BBS, she recalls that she used to stay at home a lot, watch soaps, and was not very active. She’d always loved sports but had never really participated in them before.
This all changed in her 20s, when Hannah and her husband were at their local cricket club, and they came across a poster advertising VI cricket. The poster invited people with visual impairments to attend a development day, where they could learn about VI cricket, have a go playing it, and socialise with cricket team players and other attendees.
Hannah attended the development day as a complete beginner to VI cricket and had a great time playing the sport. She loved that she could take part in the game while being visually impaired and enjoyed meeting lots of people with different eye conditions, including other people with BBS. She was quickly welcomed onto the Berkshire Stags VI Cricket Club as a team member and started playing every month. During the winter training period, the team would train indoors, and during the summer training period, they played matches outside.
Hannah says that playing sports has significantly improved her health and overall wellbeing, both mentally and physically. She has lost weight, found that regular exercise has improved ongoing back issues, and being part of a team and making lots of friends has helped to improve her depression.
IBSA World Games 2023
Hannah has been part of the England Women’s VI cricket team for around 8 years and secured her place in the team by trying out and attending development sessions. The team of 30-40 players from across England were asked to participate in the IBSA Games 2023, and Hannah happily accepted. Alongside the England Men’s VI cricket team, they played against teams from many different countries including Australia, India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan.
Hannah recalls how much she enjoyed interacting with the players from abroad, and how everyone was competitive, but still very supportive of each other. Players would cheer and congratulate each other, regardless of what team they were on. The support of the audience really helped to make the games exciting and special.
During the IBSA games, they supported players from other sports and had the opportunity to try out different sports, including show dance, blind air hockey, tennis, goalball and more.
Hannah is passionate about VI sports and would like for there to be more sporting opportunities for VI adults. She encourages people to try it for themselves with this message:
“If you’re feeling unsure about trying an accessible sport, thinking you might be judged, come along to an open day and just listen and watch to see if you want to try it in the future.”
If anyone would like to contact Hannah Young and find out more about VI cricket, you can email [email protected] and she’ll happily get back to you!
Are you ready to try VI sports?
British Blind Sports have a handy activity finder on their website so you can discover VI sports activities in your area: