Simon Heaps from Milford on Sea in Hampshire is a former European cadet champion and England international who switched to the para side of the sport after losing his lower right leg to diabetes last year.

Simon, now aged 65, originally retired from senior level competitions in 1979 but returned to play in 2016 before his diabetes worsened. His para career to date has been impressive – in one of his first tournaments as a wheelchair player at the 2019 BPTT Nottingham Para Open Grand Prix, he won two silvers, in singles and doubles.

Simon made his Great Britain Para debut at an international event in Costa Rica in December 2019 when he was forty years older than the next oldest team member. He has now struck a partnership deal with Dorset firm Eco Sustainable Solutions to help with his self-funded training and competition programme.

Simon said, “Age is no barrier to me as long as I have my upper body strength and am in tactical control of the wheelchair. At the same time, elite level sport entails expensive travelling and competition costs. The support from Eco is fantastic and will make a huge difference. As a competitor, you want to plan your campaign of events around best performance not just what you can afford. Sponsorship backing is vital to enable me to go that extra mile and be the very best I can be, so I’m really grateful to Eco for their support.”

If you would like to contribute to Simon’s fundraising campaign, visit https://www.gofundme.com/f/fund-the-simon-heaps-wheelchair-tt-dream.