Ely Rowing Club has been awarded a grant of £1,000 to help purchase adapted equipment to help disabled people.

Andrew Bateman, a rehabilitation researcher at Oliver Zangwill Centre, in Ely, is also a rowing coach with Ely Rowing Club, and thought of his patients and how the grant money could help them.

Ely Rowing Club backed Mr Bateman and the club secured the grant through the Cambridgeshire Community Foundation to help enable the club make the sport more accessible to all, particularly disabled and disadvantaged people.

Mr Bateman set about organising sessions for his neurological rehabilitation patients and has called the programme – NeuROWhabilitation.

Mr Bateman will be running the programme through the summer, and following this he is planning to produce evidence to support it.

He said: “I am extremely happy to take part in this initiative, as it means I get to spend a few hours doing physiotherapy type things as part of my job for a few hours over the spring and summer, but with the rowing club. My team are excited as we think of potential service users who could benefit from this initiative.”