MARK Hodges, chief executive of Norwich Union Life, welcomes you to Park Life.

WITH London set to host the Olympics in 2012, British sport has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to transform the nation.

With athletics being the highest profile of the sports on show, we need to ensure that it delivers on its potential, brings home the medals and inspires millions of children to participate.

That is why we recently announced the extension of our long-standing partnership with UK Athletics until 2012 in what is the biggest sports sponsorship in the UK outside football, worth nearly £50 million to the sport.

We will continue to support the sport at all levels, providing world class domestic competitions, support for all members of the Norwich Union GB Team, and mentoring support for promising juniors along similar lines to the Dame Kelly Holmes' On Camp with Kelly' initiative we currently fund.

We already engage over a million children each year in our athletics schemes, but we have now committed to trebling our investment at the grassroots level. This will revolutionise the way that sport is delivered in schools, engaging over 10 million children, 1.5 million families and over 100,000 teachers in more than 25,000 across the UK by 2012.

With Britain faced by a growing problem of obesity that is aligned to increasingly sedentary lifestyles, sporting activity is now more important than ever for our children.

This is why we are also heavily involved in supporting Kelly Holmes in her official role as the National School Sport Champion - a government-backed role in partnership with the Youth Sport Trust, Norwich Union and Sky.

Our support is also inclusive of children with disabilities. With WheelPower - the governing body of wheelchair sport - we fund a series of junior camps across the UK for children with disabilities, and all our schemes with UK Athletics cater for children of all abilities.

We are proud to sponsor this new weekly grassroots sports supplement with The Press and hope it will inspire youngsters across York to take up and continue enjoying physical activity.