Val French wins Mayors Award
Val has been a member of Pocklington Tennis Club for over 50 years, most of this time she has had various volunteer roles on the Management Committee. She is also a Trustee of the Tennis Club overseeing the development of a thriving club, and one that leads by example for others to follow throughout the East Riding.
Her training and job has always been sport orientated until her retirement after over 30 years as a P.E. Teacher and School Sports Coordinator, giving up her weekends and school holidays organising physical activities for young people. On her retirement, this has continued with work for the Panathlon Foundation which is a sports charity that enables children with disabilities in England to have competitive sporting opportunities.
Val has worked with the charity Pocklington Rugby in the Community to bring this chance to young people and to stage these sporting activities at venues throughout the area including Pocklington Tennis Club; as well as supporting the Head Coach at the Club to deliver tennis into the local mainstream schools; and latterly organising an inclusive multi-sports session in Pocklington at the Sports Centre for SEND adults.
In 2019, the Charity “Pocklington Rugby in the Community” was launched with Val as one of the original Trustees. She works tirelessly organising events in the Community.
Val is also a Breeze Champion and is the North and East Yorkshire Area Coordinator for British Cycling. Ten years ago, she set up the Breeze Cycling Network in Pocklington. This was to get more ladies back on their bikes, giving them a real boost to increase both wellbeing physically and mentally. She has undertaken 1000 rides for ladies in the area. This is more than any other Breeze Champion in the country. Val’s enthusiastic and inspirational bike rides have transformed the lives of hundreds of ladies who started riding a rickety old bike for 5 miles and have progressed to riding across the country from coast to coast. A remarkable achievement in its own right.
She has led rides for ladies not only in the country but also into Europe. To meet these ladies who have been inspired by Val’s enthusiasm and time and energy she has devoted is quite staggering. Their lives have changed massively not only in their physical fitness, but their self-esteem, confidence and mental strength.
In August, Val organised her annual Ladies Sportive (in memory of her dear friend). The sportive ran in and out of Pocklington Rugby Club for 150 ladies and raised over £6.5k last year for Women v Cancer. These days have been incredibly well run in a superb efficient manner and are thoroughly enjoyed by all who take part, which includes a whole team of volunteers she organises to assist from her cycling groups to the Pocklington Rugby in the Community Charity.
At Christmas Val plays a lead role in organising the volunteers for Pocklington Rugby in the Community Charity to prepare, cook, serve and deliver over 150 meals into the community and also at Pocklington Rugby Club for the isolated, lonely and vulnerable over two days before Christmas. This feat is repeated at Easter when Easter Eggs are delivered out into the Community, to the isolated, lonely and vulnerable.
Val does all of this work for others in the community for all of the right reasons: she is totally committed to helping others. She goes about all of this without ever ‘blowing her own trumpet’ but championing others who have achieved their own goals and overcome their own obstacles. Her infectious enthusiasm rubs off on all who come into contact with her. She has done so much for others mental and physical health in general without any of them truly realising who was responsible, this makes her very special indeed!