Kadeena Cox goes back home for youth centre visit

A double Paralympic champion will go back to her roots as part of a youth project which aims to transform lives through sport.

Chapeltown Junior Football Club has invited sprinter and cyclist Kadeena Cox to visit the Prince Philip Centre this weekend to meet youngsters who play for local sports teams.

Cox, the first British Paralympian to medal in two disciplines at the same Games since 1984, grew up in the suburb after her parents emigrated from Jamaica, and she was a pupil at Bracken Edge Primary School. She competed as a teenage non-disabled sprinter before being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2014.

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The visit will see Cox lead a number of sports sessions and talk to children about overcoming illness, adversity and self-doubt.

The football club is part of the CFYCD Chance project, an umbrella organisation whose members include Chapeltown Cougars JRLC, Hearts of Steel Orchestra, Mandela Warriors Basketball Club, Urban Music Experience and Meanwood Amateur Boxing Club.

The group aims to make a difference in the lives of young people and adults living in Chapeltown by providing facilities, resources and staffing for educational, training and sports activities.

CFYDC Chance has recently been granted a long-term lease to build a new Chapeltown Youth Development Centre, which will act as a ‘one-stop shop’ for education and sport. Other visitors recently have included ex-Leeds United manager Neil Redfearn and the club’s former academy welfare officer Lucy Ward.

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The club hit the headlines earlier this year when manager Lutel James hit out at the issue of racism in the junior game after alleging his under 13 players had been abused in a match.

Kadeena Cox will be visiting the centre on Saturday from 9.30am.

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