Inspired by our swimmer Amos, we are raising £2,000 to Support SHEDS

swim! Sheffield opened in April 2021, 2 weeks after leisure centres were given the green light to reopen. swim! has created the opportunity to allow thousands of children to get back into the water, learn a life skill and most importantly have fun and interact with other children... something that children were unable to do during the pandemic.

On the opening week, we saw many children from all backgrounds come to swim! Amos was one of these and he stole everyone's heart. Amos has downs syndrome and on arrival at his first lesson, Rebecca (Amos's mum) was unsure of how Amos's would react to being in a swim class with 5 other children. It’s safe to say that Amos absolutely loved it and has shown lots of improvement since April.

Amos's resilience has inspired swim! Sheffield team to take up their group challenge by running the Sheffield Half Marathon. As an organisation, we value ourselves on breaking down barriers and going above and beyond, just as Amos has done. We will be running on behalf of SHEDS (Sheffield Down Syndrome Support Group).

Please allow me to tell you more about SHEDS.

SHEDS is a parent-run support group that serves individuals with Down Syndrome and their families. For 20 years, the group has held monthly gatherings where families can build relationship, organized social and fundraising events and created opportunities for our families to access inclusive activities.

So many families have been served by the generous efforts of our planning team and the extraordinary fundraising successes that have kept our activities afloat.

As a community group, we want to continue to support new families in receiving a DS diagnosis, provide exciting opportunities for our young people and help our families to thrive by encouraging inclusive environments."

Currently we have 6 members of the Sheffield swim! team who have entered the half marathon with others from our sister venues hopefully joining us on our challenge.

Please see attached a few pics of Amos and his Instagram page - www.instagram.com/amosterpiece

Also, SHEDS social media and website - www.sheffielddownsyndrome.co.uk, we're on Facebook @sheffielddownsyndrome and Instagram with the same handle.

Thank you.