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Blog 31: Stay in touch with why you love your sport

In this blog, Lee Craigie shares why staying in touch with why she loves mountain biking has been important during her successful career. Lee is a mountain biker. She represented Scotland at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, was the British National Mountain Bike Champion in 2013 and a member of Team GB in 2011 and 2012. Lee established and coordinates Cycletherapy, a project that works with young people who are struggling to stay in school due to social, emotional or behavioural issues. She has a degree in Outdoor Education and a postgraduate training in Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy. I didn't get…
abi.k.johnston@googlemail.com
August 17, 2015
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Blog 30: #FUCANCER

This week Heather Duff shares her story about how sport and fitness has helped her battle and beat cancer. Heather is one inspirational girl and I encourage you to keep up with her blog at fucancer.co.uk   Completing the Loch Ness marathon a few months before diagnosis2014: A year I will never forget! Like many other sport fans living in Scotland 2014 is a year I will never forget. Born and raised in Glasgow I was elated that my city would play host to the Commonwealth Games. With a cast of sports elite and the most inclusive games yet -…
abi.k.johnston@googlemail.com
July 24, 2015
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Blog 29: Follow your true love

Ever fancied a career change into sport? Read this inspiring story by Lee MacLean who tells exactly how she did just that aged 33.   I was a gangly kid. Tall and rangy, I kind of stood out in a crowd. I’m not talking obscenely tall, but coming from a neighbourhood scheme in East Kilbride I was known to my peers as ‘Big Lee’. As the tallest P6, even out reaching the boys, I was quickly snapped up by the teacher tarred with the netball brush and promptly found myself playing goal defence with the P7 team. This had nothing…
abi.k.johnston@googlemail.com
June 30, 2015
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Blog 28: Glasgow Girls FC

Glasgow Girls kicked of their club in 2008 with 13s girls from the East End off Glasgow and reached the Scottish Cup final in first season. Now the club has over 200 girls and teams from 7s to seniors and our community coaching classes. Registered as a charity they are presently Glasgow Life's community club of the year and are also an SFA "Community Quality Mark Club". Two years ago the club opened its own facility within Budhill Park where they took over the running of an unused football pitch and installed changing units supplied by The Scottish Football Partnership.…
abi.k.johnston@googlemail.com
June 23, 2015
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Blog 27: My Journey from Elite Player to Head of Youth

Amy McDonald was an elite footballer, who captained Celtic ladies and played for Scotland. Three years ago an injury forced her to give up playing the sport she loved and caused her to question her identity. Amy’s blog shares her struggle and how, as Head of Youth at Glasgow City FC, she wants to raise awareness of the impact injury can have on an athletes mental health and why it is important that we are aware of our teammates and the players we coach. (more…)
abi.k.johnston@googlemail.com
May 29, 2015
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Blog 26: Female entries on the rise at the Marie Curie Cancer Care Etape Caledonia

Scottish Cycling Event Inspires Increasing Numbers of Women to take on 81-mile Sportive Insights from Olympic Gold Medallist Nicole Cooke MBE and Scottish Cycling’s Head of Development Vicky Strange Following trends of increased female participation in sport across the UK, the Marie Curie Cancer Care Etape Caledonia is pleased to confirm it is experiencing substantial female participation growth in 2015. With a six percent increase in the last three years alone, twenty percent of the riders taking part in the upcoming event are female.   (more…)
abi.k.johnston@googlemail.com
April 27, 2015
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Blog 25: Getting the kit right.

This week, Jane from Snapdragon, tells us why it is important to get the simple things right.. In the summer I was chatting to Sacha (far right in the photo) who is my youngest daughter's best friend. We were discussing school sports and she mentioned that the newly formed girls' rugby team at Balfron High School had no strips of their own and had to wear the boys football strips. My first thought was "Bleugggghhhh . . . I would NOT want to share a shirt with a teenage boy" Then my daughter said "The boys would never wear the…
abi.k.johnston@googlemail.com
April 17, 2015
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Blog 24: Cailtlin McClatchey, Scottish and GB Swimmer shares her highs, lows & successes

Cailtlin McClatchey represented Scotland and GB in three Commonwealth and Olympics Games. Here she provides an honest account of the highs and lows in her swimming career and the most important factors in her success.   Since I was two years old swimming has been a huge part of my life. My parents, who were both Commonwealth swimmers, encouraged me to have swim lessons from an early age, as they wanted me to be confident in the water for safety reasons, and because I enjoyed swimming. Twenty plus years later I have been fortunate enough to compete at three Olympic games,…
abi.k.johnston@googlemail.com
April 2, 2015
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Blog 23: Balancing Life as an Athlete and a Student

This week double Commonwealth finalist Kathryn Johnstone tells SWiS how she manages to balance life as a student and athlete. I started swimming competitively when I was seven years old. At this age I was about half way through my primary school education. Being an athlete and a student was easy at this age as I had school between 9am and 3pm and only trained about three or four times a week, with the odd competition taking up my weekends. Growing up with an increasing training schedule and both longer hours within school and extra time needed to complete academic obligations…
abi.k.johnston@googlemail.com
March 18, 2015