Danielle Bailey – Child of Courage Award, Pride of Britain
Published on: 29th September 2011
TEENAGER Danielle Bailey looks stunned as One Direction pop into her school yesterday to tell her she’s a Pride of Britain winner.
The 13-year-old was in morning assembly when the boyband jumped out from behind a stage curtain.
As pupils began screaming, chart-toppers Liam, Zayn, Harry, Louis and Niall made their way to Danielle to let her know she had won the Child of Courage award.
She said: “I couldn’t believe it when they came over to me. I love all them all. My mates were so jealous!”
The band’s surprise visit will be shown during the Pride of Britain Awards next week when she will honoured after overcoming the loss of all four limbs to become a gold-medal winning swimmer. Danielle had to have her legs and hands amputated after she was struck down with meningitis aged four.
She took up swimming only a year ago but is already a national amateur gold medallist. She is now waiting to find out if she has been accepted on to the British Disability World Class Talent Programme, which could set her on the path to Paralympic glory.
Danielle, who goes to Prince Henry Grammar School in Otley, West Yorks, added: “I’ve won medals but I just really enjoy it.”
Danielle Bailey was just four-years old when she lost both her legs and her hands to meningitis. Swimming for just twelve months, writes James Brown of the FDSO.
Danielle now aged 13 is already picking up swimming medals and is currently on the Amateur Swimming Association (ASA) Home Nation and Regional Talent programme.
In June 2010 Danielle attended the West Yorkshire County Athlete Assessment Day, organised by West Yorkshire Sport, as part of the Playground 2 Podium (P2P) initiative. P2P is a national initiative aimed at getting more young disabled people taking part in sport and to provide a route to maximise their potential. Following this event Danielle was invited back to additional swimming sessions provided by the ASA.
At the time, Danielle believed that the only way she could swim was on her back with a double arm pull. But with some simple coaching tips during the 1 hour session designed to showcase individual talent, Danielle improved her technique and was identified as a Fast-track swimmer.
The next stage in her development was to achieve 50 metres in all four recognised swimming strokes so that she would be eligible to attend a classification session, Danielle’s progress was astounding and she quickly learned to swim each of the four competitive strokes – breaststroke, backstroke, front crawl and butterfly.
Danielle successfully completed the classification process in February 2011 and was classified as an S4, SB3, SM4 swimmer. The Functional Classification process is co-ordinated by British Swimming, and is the assessment of a swimmer’s functional ability.
That same weekend she won a gold medal in the Disability Sports Events National Junior Swimming Championship 2011 and qualified for the Amateur Swimming Association’s Home Nation and Regional Talent programme.
Danielle, who lives in Otley near Leeds, is now a member of the Harrogate District Swimming Club and also has an ASA Liaison Coach who visits her and her coach at The Hydro. Danielle is also receiving support on such things as nutrition, hydration and strength and conditioning. This is all designed to give Danielle every opportunity to progress through the British Disability Swimming Pathway to the next stage in her development of achieving qualification on the British Disability Swimming World Class Talent Programme.
See Danielle interviewed at the Playground to Podium County Athlete Assessment Day 2010
