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The voice of Scotland’s vibrant voluntary sector

Published by Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations

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Charity’s role in Jo Butterfield’s Paralympic gold revealed

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The 37-year-old from Glasgow threw 22.81m in the F51 club throw at Rio on Sunday.

Jo Butterfield has become the second Scot to win gold for ParalympicsGB after smashing her own world record in the F51 club throw at Rio.

The 37-year-old threw 22.81m to add Paralympics gold in the club throw to her 2014 European title and 2015 world title.

Butterfield, from Glasgow, has been supported by the charity Help for Heroes through its Sports Recovery programme, which provides military athletes with an introduction to Paralympic sport.

The former army civil servant was paralysed in 2010 after an operation to remove a tumour on her spinal cord. She initially entered disability sport through wheelchair rugby before starting throwing two years ago.

You need a lot of enthusiasm when it is raining in Scotland, to go out and put the time and effort in

After her win in Rio on Sunday she said: "It is a little weird if I am honest, but it's great. It is everything I have been working for with my coaches, so to actually come and nail it is brilliant.

“It has been a tough few days and I must thank my medical team who got me here; it's great to be able to do it for them. This is the result of a lot of hard work, but I love what I do.

“You need a lot of enthusiasm when it is raining in Scotland, to go out and put the time and effort in."

Help for Heroes has been running Sports Recovery since 2008, and in the past year alone has put on around 300 events across 50 different sports enabling wounded, injured and sick service personnel and veterans to take part in adaptive sports from grassroots through to performance level.

Jayne Kavanagh, performance pathway manager at Help for Heroes, said: “We know that sport plays a big part in the recovery journey, providing a sense of confidence and purpose as well as improving general wellbeing.

“We encourage anyone that might want to try sport for the first time post injury to be inspired by these athletes and they too could find and experience the power of sport in their day to day lives.”