When Colleagues at HC-One’s
Daneside Court care home in Northwich, Cheshire, found out about one Residents’ wish to try archery, they set about to make this happen.
Carer Nicky Orme from the 64-bed residential and nursing care home sent a plea to help make Christopher Taylor’s dream of having a go at archery come true.
Wellbeing Coordinator Sharon Lelonek got in touch with Andrew Oliver from Winnington Park Bowmen Archery Club, in Northwich to see if the club could help.
Andrew accepted the home’s quest for help and put to the clubs committee a plan of action.
Carers Nicky Orme, Mea Orourke and Sharon assisted Chris to the venue where they were greeted by the archery members; Ian Garton, Leigh Hadfield, Michelle, and Adam.
They each gave Chris a demonstration of their skills shooting the bows, hitting the targets and showed him a variety of bows and arrows to use. They also provided an interesting talk on how historically they were used for hunting.
Chris has never tried his hand at this sport before but was one which he had admired and wanted to have a go. He was in awe of just being in the archery club, it meant everything to him.
It wasn’t long before Leigh and Adam helped assist Chris to hold the bow and shoot his first arrow, not one but several arrows, (and Chris hit the target too, which wasn’t an easy task!)
The evening just got better for Chris as the members presented him with a special archery club branded polo shirt!
But the best was to come as the group learnt Leigh Hadfield represented England in the Commonwealth Archery Championship of Europe Games and is going to enter the next Olympic Games!
All felt very honoured and tearful at this point, then Leigh gave Chris his own personal gold medal, which he had won in an archery competition.
Chris is wearing his polo shirt with pride in the home, and he had a wonderful evening, The archery club went above and beyond to make Chris feel welcome, helping him every step of the way. Their dedication to him exceeded expectations of making his wish come true. Colleagues just cannot thank everyone enough for a wonderful evening.
A special thank you from Chris, he said, “I had a brilliant night, and it was special in every way for me.”
Samantha Farahat, Care Home Manager, remarked, “This is just perfect of what we are striving to achieve for all of our Residents. When you come to live in care this doesn’t mean that any hopes, wishes or dreams they had previously can still be fulfilled. Thank you to the Archery Club for making this dream come true.”