Teacher helped to make history (From Ledbury Reporter)

Teacher helped to make history

5:00pm Friday 14th September 2012 in Ledbury

A LEDBURY teacher met the stars of the Paralympic Games when she travelled to London to take up her post as a volunteer Games Maker.

Shelley Marsh, a teacher at Ledbury Primary School, met athletes and Olympic organiser Lord Coe.

Her role involved making sure the five and seven-a-side football tournaments passed off without a hitch.

She also watched Ledbury goalie, Lewis Skyers, playing between the sticks for the five-a-side GB blind football team.

She said: “The experience was overwhelming, inspiring and purely amazing.

To be involved in an event being visited and watched by people worldwide was an experience I shall treasure forever.”

For Skyers, a former Ledbury Town player, the Paralympics was a typically British story as his side tasted defeat in an agonising penalty shoot-out.

They drew their first match, against China, 1-1 before succumbing 2-1 to the dreaded spot kicks.

Skyers, who works as an outdoor education teacher for children with special needs in Ledbury, said: “A British team lose on penalties again, it is a familiar story.” However he said he was proud of the team’s efforts. “The guys gave everything and China are the silver medalists from Beijing 2008,” he added Team GB bounced back in their final match with a 2-0 win over Turkey to seal seventh place in the tournament.