Billy is a Coach Core apprentice and Essex All Together ambassador that has made great strides in keeping active at home, showcasing his journey and helping to inspire others to do the same during a difficult time. With multiple events all approaching at once – 3030 Essex, #DailyMileAtHome and #AtHomeSuperheroes Billy was able to use all of these as a platform to help showcase and inspire others to get involved and keep active. Read Billy’s blog below to see what he has been up to…
My At Home Superheroes journey so far…
It all started when I got myself my first ever Spider-Man costume, as a way to engage and take part in various activities with my Son Noah. I managed to keep it a secret for a while, but then my partner went back to work, the #3030Essex campaign and #AthomeSuperheroes was fast approaching so I needed a plan. This is when I officially became Spider-Man and managed to first channel this into our #DailyMileAtHome efforts leading to our 3030 efforts which geared us up ready for the Superheroes Series event powered by Marvel.
Due to it being lockdown, we managed to channel our energy to go out locally and explore and learn together, from walking, running and exploring the woods together, I could not have had a better super sidekick to help drive and motivate me to push beyond my barriers and enjoy this special bonding time with my Son. Everytime we leave the house we receive such warm welcomes from locals, we just love the atmosphere Superheroes bring to the table, the smiles, the joy and the laughter make it all completely worth it. With my partner back in work full time, we had to find a way to channel this into our daily lives, so by linking all of our efforts together we made this possible and one complimented the next, we started small and built it up with our efforts and even on some of my worser days we still managed to get out and or do something at home.
With very understanding support from my partner, we decided a mid week break will help me rest and get my bearings back together to go again. So I have managed to factor in rest days, which has been important because it can be exhausting for me in the suit, but the joy this brings to my Son and others helps carry me through the experience and enjoy it myself. To be honest, it has created a huge passion, a love for the superhero ethos and the power this has to encourage and inspire more to be active.
I am truly thankful for this experience but would also like to mention part of the route causes as to why I take part. A huge part of this is the inspiration you get from all fellow Superheroes and Sidekicks, but another for me which is more personal is related to my #EssexAll2gether journey as an ambassador in Essex within Disability and Inclusion sport and how and why experiences like this are so important to encourage wider participation and understanding and inclusion.
I made it my personal mission with this event this year to support the Active Essex Foundation, to support more physical activity projects in Essex to support Young and Vulnerable people across Essex. My fundraiser can be found here; https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/foractiveessexfoundation
I must admit though, I does make me feel awful that I have not been able to fundraise much, but knowing the actual impact this is having on our lives right now makes it all worth it and every single penny donated will too. So I decided to keep my fundraiser up, but made it more my mission to raise awareness and inspire more to choose being active and how we have embraced the superhero theme with such special powers.
This experience has shown me just how important it is that we make our own missions in life and pursue them, that everyday superheroes live inside all of us and they are waiting to be explored. The key is believing you can achieve, this only happens when you step out into the unknown and thats exactly what I am doing.
So far we have been in training and the main events are yet to commence, with at At Home Superhero Triathalon attempt on my Birthday the 13th of July followed by an At Home Superhero Daily Mile At Home event.
