To mark International Day of Persons with Disabilities the Leeds United Foundation decided to give some of the disabled participants they work with a special day out.

The club’s official charity has an award-winning Disability Programme that works with hundreds of people in the local community who have a number of different disabilities, both physical and mental, everyday.

To help celebrate the international awareness day participants were invited to Thorp Arch, the club’s training ground, to take part in a one-off activity session with first-team stars Barry Douglas and Izzy Brown, Leeds United Ladies players Bridie Hannon and Olivia Smart and the entire Under-18s squad.

International Day of Persons with Disabilities aims to promote the rights and well-being of disabled people in society and development - as well as to increase awareness of the situation of those with disabilities in every aspect of political, social, economic and cultural life.

Those invited to take part in the showcase event included members of the Foundation’s junior and adult pan disability teams, participants from the Corner Flag Cafe delivered once a month for people suffering with early on-set dementia and students from a local East Specialist Inclusive Learning Centre (SILC).

Leeds United Foundation coaches delivered a training and skills development session for the junior pan disability team with help from the Ladies stars, some of the Under-18s players got involved in a teamwork building session with students from East SILC whilst Izzy Brown and Barry Douglas were taking part in a football match with the adult pan disability team and a reminiscent session with the dementia participants and their partners respectively.

Midfielder Izzy Brown, currently on-loan from Premier League club Chelsea, spoke about being a part of the activity and said: “It’s so tough for some of these guys day in and day out and it’s really nice for them to come down here, be free and play the sport that they love – which is football, just like us.

“Going on the pitch and playing with them was great, I had the goalkeeper telling me what to do and where I needed to be so it was lovely to see and great to see a smile on all of their faces.

“It’s great to see so many people coming together as a community, there must be about 100 people in here today, and all to help people that are less able than us, it’s a great cause.”

Whites left-back Barry Douglas added: “It’s been a great turn out, with all credit to all of the people involved, not just today but the Foundation are out working with these guys every week. It’s been nice to just see people having fun, with smiles on their faces.

“You always get great stories from people with dementia, my gran actually has dementia so I can relate to it a lot and it was great spending time with them and hearing their stories, a lot of it is reflecting on what is important in life. We’re privileged to do what we do as work but you sometimes forget about the other side of things for those maybe less fortunate so it’s nice for us to come down, spend a bit of time with them, get to know them and try and make them happy.”

If you would like more information about the work Leeds United Foundation do with disabled people throughout Leeds please contact the Disability Officer at Anthony.Hall@leedsunited.com.