Commonwealth medallists present competition prizes

Published: 26 November, 2010

There was great excitement at Plymouth College Preparatory School when Commonwealth medallists, Tom Daley, Antony James and Michaela Breeze, were special guests at Assembly.

Tom, who won two diving gold medals, Antony who swam his way to silver and bronze medals and Michaela, who won a silver for weightlifting, came to announce the winners of the 'Ben's Dream' competition and to sign autographs.

Ben Clark is a former Plymouth College pupil who was part of the school's elite swimming programme.  Now aged 20, his 2012 Olympic dreams were cut short earlier this year when he broke his neck in a freak accident.  Although he has regained some movement in his upper body, he remains paralysed from the waist down.  However, Ben is determined to compete for Britain in the 2012 Paralympics.  He has set up a charity called Chairs for Champions and hopes to raise enough money to fund a special racing wheelchair and other important equipment for him and other disabled athletes.

Prep pupils, George and Jack Rudd, who met Ben recently, organized a competition to raise money for his charity.  With Ben's Dream as the title, pupils had to paint, draw or colour a picture for Ben. The winners were: Jack Rabin (Reception), Thomas Lamerton (Year 1), Rebecca Eadie (Year 2), Sam Harvey and Sam Malcolm (Year 3), Emily Smith (Year 4), Theo Roustand (Year 5) and Romy Ramakers (Year 6).

The competition and autographs raised £120 for Chairs for Champions.