Is Leisure a Luxury?

Of course the events that we organise have a great fun element and could be seen as 'trivial' pursuits. But we have always believed that the Sportability Experience is much more than that.

The opportunity to take people out of their everyday situation, to provide them with new, exciting and rewarding experiences has driven our programming. The focus on what people can do rather than what they can't is central to our ethos.

It is no accident that our tag line reads: Taking the 'dis' out of disability.

Perhaps it is best summed up in the simple true-life example of one of our members who went to the quayside in a wheelchair, and as a "disabled person"; but came back a sailor. A seminal change in the way they thought (and importantly continue to think) about their condition and what they could do within that condition, and the powerful effect that leisure can have on life.

So we were delighted when Tim Worner, our Area Organiser for Dorset & Hants drew our attention to a terrific article written by Alison Johnson, MS Specialist Occupational Therapist at The Walton Centre for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Liverpool.

This article published on the MS Trust website looks at leisure for its therapeutic value and as such takes the trivial tag, the time-wasted connotation out of the equation and re-appraises the true worth of other-time activities.

It is exactly what we in Sportability have known and been practising for nearly 20 years.

To read Alison's article log on to:

http://www. mstrust.org.uk/professionals/information/wayahead/art icles/13032009_06.jsp

It is a stimulating read. So let us know what you think.