A TALENTED sports player from York is looking for help to reach her dream.

Alice McHaffie, 17, from Acomb, is a student at York College, studying health and social care and has battled debilitating illness for much of her life, having been diagnosed with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome at ten-years-old.

Now Alice and her family are fundraising for a new sports wheelchair that is necessary to compete, as well as raising some money to assist with travel throughout the country.

They are hoping to raise £10,000.

She lives with her mum Emily, 46, who works as a pre-school assistant, her dad Michael, 46, a telecom engineer and sister Amy, 19.

Her mother, Emily, said: “As you can imagine, living with any chronic condition is very difficult and along with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, Alice has many complex health issues to deal with which affect her everyday life.

“It is heartbreaking as parents to see your child go through so much pain and you feel helpless and useless. Unfortunately, as CRPS is a little known condition and very little support for any of the family as it has a huge intact not only on the affected child but siblings and parents.

“It also makes it very difficult to maintain friendships and school etcetera, but wheelchair basketball changed so much for her, as she developed her skills she became much more confident.”

Alice found basketball after a taster session at York High School and from then knew that she had to play.

She joined the wheelchair basketball club York Sharks before eventually being selected for Yorkshire in the Lord Taverners National Junior Championships in 2017, where they won a bronze medal.

Alice has recently been selected to play for East London Phoenix in the inaugural Women’s Premier League for basketball, fresh from winning gold with England North at the School Games 2021.

Emily said: “Finding wheelchair basketball really changed her life and is one of the most important things in her life for so many reasons. It keeps her fit both physically and mentally and really has given her a focus in life. It is also her social life too.

Alice’s dream is to play for Team GB and now she is playing with some of her role models like Amy Conroy and competing against others like Robyn Love, to name a couple.”

Emily said: “It would really help Alice to progress if she was able to raise some funds for a new, tailor made sports wheelchair and some extra funds to help with the travel and accommodation costs as she travels to compete.

“If Alice is to fulfil her potential she really needs help to raise these funds.”

More details on the fundraising can be found here.