Monica Petrosino

Monica suffered with epilepsy from the age of 3, she spent most of her time in and out of hospital and on various tablets She was emotionally abused by a neighbour of ours and suffered the equivalant of a nervous breakdown aged 7. She always had strong family support but suffered in her social and was bullied through her school. She was obese and extremley unhappy. Her school work suffered and due to the bullying attending school was a problem. At the age of 7 she watched the film mighty ducks and decided she would put her efforts in to playing ice hockey. This was her time to shine, her confidence soared and the sport gave her a new lease of life. She worked very hard playing for boys ice hockey teams, even training up with the womens ice hockey team at Bracknell. She lost 6 stone within 3 years, is now expecting distininctions for her college work and is also going to take an A level in maths. She is now 17 years old and plays for 11 teams in total for both ice and inline hockey, she plays for England and Great Britain and has just been picked to play for the senior womens team for England. Last year she was picked and played in the junior olympics in LA and the hocktober fest in Canada. She has really shown what dedication and passion for a sport can do to change someones life and i really hope that she is an inspiration to other children. I want to be able to show her that her achievements in all aspects of her life are truly amazing and she should be very proud!