Sport volunteering awards for pair of dedicated visually impaired young men from Northamptonshire

Two visually impaired young men from Northamptonshire have been rewarded for their volunteering work by British Blind Sport (BBS).

Kian Saville and David Howells were among the winners at the charity's virtual See My Voice Young Leader Recognition Awards.

Kian, 20, from Daventry, was presented with a 'special recognition' award and 17-year-old David, from Northampton, won the 'volunteering moment' award.

Kian said: “It was a big shock to me as I was obviously involved in running and planning the awards ceremony, so didn’t expect to win one myself!"

See My Voice is a sports programme for young people living with sight loss, aged 10-20, which supports them to gain skills through volunteering and an accredited qualification.

BBS has been running it for the last three years and the awards celebrated the volunteering achievements of Young Leaders involved over that time as the programme came to an end.

As one of the first to be involved in See My Voice, Kian has contributed over 800 hours of volunteering across several organisations over the last two years, including Daventry Dolphins Swimming Club for whom he coaches and competes.

Recently, he was offered a part-time contract to support with the programme and the award signifies how valuable he has been to See My Voice.

Kian added: "I’ve been a part of the See My Voice programme from the start working my way up from a Young Leader taking part, before progressing to deliver it to others and now working for BBS as support assistant/young leader liaison. I have loved every minute of it!"

David was rewarded for his volunteering work at MK Dons Sport and Education Trust.

While coaching the U12 pan-disability group, he supported a young boy with a visual impairment to take part by offering encouragement and adapting the session.

This inspired the boy’s passion to play and he has since become a regular attendee as well as the last player to leave the pitch each week.

David is also vice captain of Northamptonshire County Cricket Club’s adult visually impaired team, who were national champions in 2019.

He became involved with the See My Voice project as part of his Duke of Edinburgh award and was keen to help people in a similar situation to himself play sport.

David said: “Sport has always been very important to me and volunteering has meant I have been able to do something I love whilst encouraging and helping others to have new experiences or build on their skills.

"It has given me the confidence not to see my visual impairment as something that should get in the way of playing sport.

"It has built my self-assurance in dealing with others both in sport and social settings.”