Making Frame Football Equal

Callum Branch, England

England Football (The FA) and Goal Click teamed up for a special series telling the story of disability football in England through the eyes and words of those involved across elite and grassroots disability football - including players, coaches, young leaders, and referees.

My name is Callum Branch, and I am 19 years old.

I have diplegic cerebral palsy which affects the muscles in my legs. I use a manual wheelchair most of the time, but I also use a walking frame from time to time - and to play football.

I am from Chafford Hundred in Essex and am currently working in a special needs school helping with the PE department.

In 2011, I joined Basildon Soccability club, but I was the only person who used a walking frame. Playing football with able bodied children when I was the only one in a walking frame was very frustrating as they were all too fast for me, so I really did not have much chance of getting the ball.

My dad Steve decided to start up a frame football team in 2015 and we were called “Basildon Frame Football”. I found this team to be much more inclusive and I was able to get the ball. It felt great, as finally I was truly able to be part of a team. We are all equal in frames playing football. There were only five of us when the team started, but now there are about 15 of us.

My highlight with this team was taking part in the Richard Seedhouse Memorial Cup at St. George’s Park and our team winning the trophy! The tournament was in memory of Richard Seedhouse, who was an early pioneer of frame football, but sadly passed away in 2017.

I took photos of all my teammates at a Basildon Soccability training session. I wanted to show all my teammates having fun and enjoying being part of a team. You can tell by their faces how much they love football.

There a few of us who have had a pioneering surgery in America to help us walk – it is called a Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy (SDR). This surgery involves opening up our spines and cutting the nerves that send the signals to our muscles. Without this surgery I probably would never have been able to play football, as my muscles would have been too stiff.

In our community, football brings children and adults of all ages and disabilities together. Basildon Soccability has made all of us at the club feel part of a team.

To me, football means keeping fit and having fun. I love fitness and in the future, I am looking to become a personal trainer and to keep working hard with adaptive CrossFit.

CrossFit is a form of workout using weights and body strength, and the intensity levels are adjusted to challenge each individual. Adapted CrossFit is the same but the workouts are adapted depending on the individual’s disability.

Recently I decided I wanted to go and do some work experience in a SEN (special educational needs) school because I want to become a personal trainer and work with people with all different disabilities. It is very rewarding.

The school is both a primary and secondary school and the children have a variety of complex needs. A typical PE session can be anything from getting the children to use the gym equipment, play throw and catch, playing with skittles, or have a go at playing boccia. The aim of the lesson is to engage the kids in working their muscles, as 95% of them have a very limited range of movement. Something as simple as getting them to squeeze a ball is great for their hand muscles.

We need to get more children and adults in our area involved in frame football. I want to encourage more people to play, as you can make some great friends while keeping active and fit! Frame football makes you part of a football team. It gets me exercising, which is so important for my mental health.

Above all I am truly grateful for my family, because without them I would not be where I am today in life and experienced the things that I have.