Access Sport is delighted to welcome three new trustees, Mandana Mehran Pour, Lorraine Bedwell and Matthew Dawson to the charity’s Board. This year has been unprecedented in terms of impact on children, young people and their families’ physical and mental wellbeing. The Trustees join Access Sport at a critical time, to help us execute our 2025 strategic aims of building national, inclusive movements-for-change in strategically important sports such as cycling and hockey; while exploring new sports to influence and new national governing bodies to partner with, to significantly improve access for vulnerable and disabled people.

 

 

Mandana Mehran Pour

Mandana is the Participation Manager for LTA where she leads on the strategic direction on tennis development in London focusing on unlocking relationships with senior executives within Local Authorities and political leaders to help them  manage their tennis assets in parks more effectively.

Previously Mandana has been working for London Sport where she gained notable experience of working with a range of National Governing Bodies of sport, local authorities and a wide range of community sport organisations. 

Mandana was born in Tehran, Iran where she played basketball professionally for 20 years. She comes from a sporty family and she played basketball since she was 9 before becoming a professional  player representing her country. Mandana moved to the UK in 2007 after being offered a full scholarship to study for a Masters. Mandana holds a BA in Civil Engineering and MA in Sport Management. 

She loves cycling, swimming and jogging with her dog! …..

’I was very fortunate to have sport in my life from a young age and my parents were great role models for me. Sport brought me happiness, confidence, friendship and taught me the biggest lessons of my life! I like to live in a world where every child has the opportunity to benefit from sport in some way!’

Lorraine Bedwell

Lorraine is a Doctoral Researcher at Manchester Metropolitan University's Sports Policy Unit, specialising in organisational culture, performance and change. She also has an interest in the role of organisational culture in talent development and organisational belonging. Lorraine has broad commercial experience having spent 15 years helping to develop a recruitment business before returning to education. As a Senior Executive, she was responsible for business growth, recruitment and talent development. 

Recognising sports numerous benefits, she is passionate about sport for all and enabling children to realise their full potential.

Matthew Dawson

Matthew is an IT Director and a father of two young children. In his spare time he is an endurance athlete and has supported Access Sport since 2013 when he first raised money completing his English Channel solo swim.

Matthew truly believes that sport can change lives and that it should be a basic right for everyone from all backgrounds. The work Access Sport does to provide the opportunity to get disadvantaged children active and involved in sport, as well as working with local communities to build sustainable clubs is exactly what is needed to help combat many of the social problems of today. 

Martin McPhee, Access Sport Chair said:

“I'm so pleased that these three remarkable individuals are joining the Board of Access Sport. We are already positively experiencing the impact of two other new Trustees, Christine Gibbons and Nicolas Janvier, who were appointed earlier this year. They all bring enormously valuable and diverse skills and experiences and are driven by a deep commitment to the cause of deprived and disabled children, young people and their families. All five compliment our incredibly dedicated Trustee team and will help us deliver on our 2025 promise”