Nicola Blythe

In my position as Honoray Secretary of Belfast Lough Sailability, I would like to nominate Nicola Blythe to be a London 2012 Olympic Torchbearer. Nicola has worked tirelessly in her role as Volunteer Coordinator. Suffering a disability herself she works on determined to build up our core of volunteers several with disability so that the charity can offer sailing to those with disability of all ages. Nicola has devoted time and energy to improve her skills in sailing, boating, first aid and computing so that the volunteers have the best help and opportunities they can possibly have from their volunteer coordinator to improve their own skill levels. She also looks after our events programme and block bookings from special schools and groups keeping her eye out for those who could fulfil a dream to participate in the Paralympics. As sailing with the disabled demands a very high ratio of volunteers to participants Nicola constantly strives to ensure the sailing sessions are fully manned so that the disabled participants can get the most out of their time with our group. Her role is also to keep everyone informed and also encourage the use of a log book scheme so that a volunteer`s skills can be personally recorded. It is inspiring to see a disabled volunteer having their log book filled in and achieving a skill or qualification they would never have thought possible. It may be that Nicola will need to use a wheelchair to take part if chosen.