Actionnaires Club Coordinators win top award

26 August 2008

Two Actionnaires Club Coordinators have won a top regional award for setting up Scarborough Actionnaires. Sue and Brian Vasey and their four sons were voted the North East’s Outstanding Family of the Year 2008 by top-selling women’s magazine Candis.

The family launched the sports club following the diagnosis of two of their sons, Curtis, 14, and Taylor, 13 with Alstrom Syndrome, an inherited disease marked by blindness, deafness, diabetes and reduced life expectancy. High levels of fitness can delay the condition’s progress but the family found that the only suitable sports facilities involved a 200-mile round trip to Doncaster, Huddersfield and Sheffield.

Sue and Brian set up the Scarborough sports club in September 2006. However, the club soon became under threat to close due to lack of funding. Action for Blind People worked with Sue and Brian to save the club and it was launched as an Actionnaires club in 2007.

The club helps Curtis and Taylor maintain a healthy weight and fitness level and also benefits other children locally. Curtis said: “I had never played cricket before going to the club and never thought I would be able to, but I can and I love it! My brother and I have learnt so many new sports, that we had never had the chance to do before and have made lots of new friends.”

The Vaseys were selected by a panel of three celebrity judges: actress and author Jane Asher, TV presenter and actress Denise Welsh and Mike Tomlinson, husband of the late cancer victim and charity fundraiser Jane Tomlinson.

Candis editor Debbie Attewell said “The Vaseys are a remarkable family, turning devastating news about their sons’ conditions into a positive benefit for their community. Sue and Brian’s other two sons, Alex, 19 and Rio, 10, do all they can to help their brothers too.”