Get Yourself Active is a programme run by the leading national user-led pan-disability charity Disability Rights UK. Since we began in 2015, we have worked tirelessly to increase Disabled people’s participation in sport and physical activity so that everyone can experience its benefits.
We want to break down barriers so that every Disabled person can find ways to get active in their local area in a way that is right for them. Disabled people have a right to get active, and we want everyone to have the chance to feel good and have fun wherever they are.
When our work began, we quickly saw how barriers prevent Disabled people from getting active. It wasn’t that Disabled people didn’t want to get involved, but that many preventable barriers were stopping them.
At Get Yourself Active, the answer is clear – centring Disabled people’s voices will change lives for the better. As Disabled people leading change, we champion the rights of Disabled people to take part in and benefit from physical activity.
Equal participation in physical activity for all.
Everyone has the right to get active and feel the benefits of sport and physical activity in ways that suit them. We know that if the barriers to participation are broken down, more Disabled people will get active. It’s that simple.
Lydia Bone, Programme Manager
Liddie joined Disability Rights UK in November 2019 and works as a Programme Manager for Get Yourself Active. Liddie is a qualified social worker and has worked in various roles in the voluntary sector before joining DRUK.
She leads on various projects within Get Yourself Active, including rolling out training to the social care sector and advocating for co-production approaches within the sport sector. When she’s not working, Liddie loves to stay active by going on long walks in the peak district. She has also recently started lifting weights in the gym!
Elliot Watson, Project Officer
Elliot has been working with Disability Rights UK since joining as a volunteer in January 2020, where he assisted with the running of DR UK’s shop. He has since joined the Get Yourself Active Programme, where he helps deliver the Together Fund, supporting Disabled people to become more physically active. It’s a role that Elliot is passionate about due to his personal experiences.
Elliot is a Disabled person himself and has 17-years of lived experience. He has had four spinal operations to remove a tumour and drain a cyst from inside his spinal cord, affecting how he walks. He had his first operation when he was 11 back in 2005 and his most recent one in 2013 and needed stoma surgery in 2017. As a result of his own experiences and the barriers he has faced inspired him to move into the charity sector to help support Disabled people.
He is a lover of the sea and graduated from the University of Plymouth with a BSc (Hons) Oceanography and Coastal Processes degree. He enjoys going sea fishing, kayaking, open-water swimming, and walking his bonkers springer spaniel Bella in his free time.
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