The Middlesex Tennis Young Person of the Year is a great example of the great work that the Middlesex Tennis Volunteer of the Year award winner Linda Almond is doing in developing young people. Tom Roberts is a volunteer at the regular Metro Blind Sport visually impaired tennis sessions led by Linda Almond at Islington Tennis Centre on Wednesday evenings.

Tom started helping with this session in 2017 as part of his Bronze Duke of Edinburgh award and in 2019 he did his Silver Duke of Edinburgh award which this volunteering formed part of.

As an experienced volunteer he is now able to guide partially sighted players on his own from the nearby tube station and he is also a role model for other young people displaying excellent skills in how to guide and communicate with blind players. Tom also supports Mark Bullock, who coaches the sessions, by feeding balls and joining in with the players.

One of the blind players explains what it means to have volunteers like our Young Volunteer of the Year helping:

“I would like to thank you and the wonderful team of volunteers from the bottom of my heart. It is amazing to see how selfless you all are and what an immaculate job you always do! I know that words cannot do enough to express my gratitude and I hope that you will be able to sense how much affection I feel towards all of you for making our lives more enjoyable and for giving us a chance to play sports without any worries. A million thank yous once again”.

Tom is a real trailblazer. He has encouraged new students to help and there have been 31 new young volunteers since he started. He deserves special recognition for his achievements and is a very worthy recipient of the Regional Award.

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