Recruited UK are delighted to announce their sponsorship of a member of the 2021 Warrington Wolves Wheelchair Rugby League team, Toby Burton-Carter. Toby (pictured centre) served twelve years with the Grenadier Guards, and was subsequently diagnosed with PTSD, Arthritis in his spine, hands, knee and ankles, as well as chronic Sciatica and Fibromyalgia. He also found himself homeless on two occasions just within the last two years.
“I started playing wheelchair rugby league as a way of managing my symptoms, as well as improving my mental health”, he tells us. “I also want to support anyone who needs help wherever I can. I was a head teacher for a SEND school (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities), have taught in prisons, as well as volunteering with the police and probation service.”
Warrington Wolves Wheelchair RLFC was set up in 2018 and has gone from strength to strength. The club have been competing in the 2021 Championship this season and are currently in such a strong position that they stand a real chance of being promoted to the Super League. The selected squad, which includes Toby, are now gearing up to play the Championship Cup final in August.
On Recruited UK’s sponsorship of Toby, Managing Director Richard Rogers, says: “I’ve known Toby for a while, and he is a total inspiration, overcoming so much that life has thrown at him; and to be honest, we are honoured for the opportunity to be able to sponsor him in this way. Toby is new to the team but in true Toby fashion, he’s already established himself as a key player, even being called up to the Ireland squad for the recent Celtic Cup. The guy is amazing.”
Sponsorship is available through the Warrington Wolves Foundation, which is the charitable arm of the Warrington Wolves Rugby League Club. Created to provide life changing opportunities through sport, education, health and the arts which enrich, inspire and celebrate the Warrington Community. They offer a diverse range of projects that include, but not limited to, inclusion, primary and secondary school rugby league, women and girls, holiday activities, heritage, mens’ mental health, visual arts and holiday hunger.
Richard continues: “There are plenty of ways in which you can support the Foundation, and I’d encourage anyone to support the outstanding work they are doing. The sheer amount of activities they organise blows my mind!”
The inclusion programme that the wheelchair rugby league team sits within offers wide range of activities that means there is something for everyone; they have rugby league and football representative teams, a youth that had a trampolining add on session, visual arts, dance, music as well as supporting social care charities such as Community Integrated Care and MacIntyre. The overarching aim of the inclusion programme is to improve and confidence through sport and arts.
To find out more about the Warrington Wolves Foundation, and the wheelchair rugby league, visit www.warringtonwolvesfoundation.com. Any businesses wishing to get involved should contact Andrew Brady, their Disability Coordinator, at andrewbrady@warringtonwolvesfoundation.com.
