Philip Greer

Philip was born in 1956 and at the age of 6 he contracted Rhumatic Feever and was paralized from the waist down and his parents were told that he would never walk again. He was then admitted to hospital where he recieved treatment for the disease and bit by bit he started to recover eventualy progressing to a wheel chair. After 14 months in a wheelchair he finaly got back the use of his legs. Whilst watching other kids play sport his determination to suceed became stronger and when he left school he joined a running club. Phil ran in many local races and in 1982 he ran his first Potteries Marathon finishing in 3hrs 28 mins and over the next few years he progressed to a time of 2hrs 38 mins in the London marathon in 1988. At this time Phil wanted to put something back into the sport that had given him so much and was prepared to sacrifice his own training so that he could help others, so he attended a coaching course and statred to coach local children. Before long Phil had as many as 25 juniors of all ages and abilities and spent 5 days a week coaching and preparing them for races and with a lot of sucess with Louise Baker finishing 5th at Liverpool in the European trials and Alex Derricott representing GB in the European Championsships and winning a gold medal. Phil also coached his own son and daughter who were both County Champions at Cross Country. Phil went to the Athens Olympics in 2004 doing some comentry work for BBC Radio Stoke.