Who are we?

We, Jenny Moore (22) and Greg Mairs (23), are badminton players based in Loughborough, England. We both started playing badminton when we were around 8-9 years old and today we are now ranked 59 in the world as a Mixed Doubles partnership. In addition to training 4-5 hours per day, we are also part-time Masters students – both studying Information Management and Business Technology. As well as being a partnership on-court, we are also a couple off-court and have been together for over 6 years!

Why have we started this page?

There is an opportunity for us to travel to Asia in July 2018 (and we’ve included some more details below), to compete in 2 tournaments – one in Bangkok, and one in Singapore. We have both wanted to compete in Asia for so long, and we want to take this chance to go! In addition to being massive fans of Asian food, we believe the experience of playing these two tournaments will have a huge impact on our careers – it is a massive chance for us to learn and progress, and will give us the opportunity to compete and be successful at the highest level in the future.

So, the reasons why we have set up this page – neither of us are on the national funding programme, meaning we have to finance our badminton careers ourselves. Whilst we get financial help from Loughborough University Scholarships, and our sponsor ESPA UK, we rely on additional part-time jobs to fund the tournaments we need to play around Europe! For example, Jenny is a Deliveroo rider (see photo!), delivering pizzas, KFC and all-sorts around the Loughborough town centre. Greg is a gatehouse security man, and also a part-time badminton coach at Nottingham Trent University.

Although we work hard to fund our badminton careers, there are not enough hours in the day to train, study and complete our jobs to earn a sufficient amount to fund any tournaments outside of Europe! We try to maximise our budgets where we can – such as booking flights months in advance to get the lowest prices, sharing a suitcase to tournaments (with 2 badminton bags squished in!), regularly staying in AirBnB’s, and frequently taking our own food to cook abroad to further minimise costs (Uncle Ben’s Rice is a life-saver!). This is why we are hoping with the help of family, friends, businesses and anyone else who may want to help us, we can achieve our goal of going to Asia in July 2018.

What do we need to raise to be able to go to Asia?

We have estimated that the total of our trip (from the 6th July 2018 – 22nd July) will cost around £2880. This includes the following costs:

Flights - £1200 (£600 each) ; Hotels in Bangkok and Singapore - £1200 total; Food - £400 (£200 each, based on around £10-15 each per day); Tournament entry fees - £80 (£40 each)

Thank you for taking the time to look at our page, read our story and (hopefully) help us go to Asia in July 2018!