Teenage Salisbury runner matched up with world class mentor
14 year old Cameron Jacobs has been awarded a scholarship by Sarum Rotary
Last updated 20th Jan 2021
Cameron, from Harnham, runs for City of Salisbury Athletics Club and has been a regular at Salisbury Parkrun.
He's been given a scholarship through the True Athlete Project (TAP), which pairs up young sportspeople with current or former international athletes, many of them Olympians or Paralympians.
Cameron was chosen by Sarum Rotary from a number of local applications.
The mentor scheme is aimed at helping young athletes with the mental and emotional sides of their sport, to help them learn about resilience and overcoming challenges.
That's something that Cameron Jacobs already faces, as he has Asperger's Syndrome, ADHD and a growth hormone deficiency that requires daily injections.
The Grateley House School pupil likes to run every day after school, often barefoot, and has been completing a half marathon most weekends with his dad.
In July 2020, Cameron also ran the 58 kilometre length of the Avon Valley Path from Salisbury to Christchurch, to raise £1,500 for Salisbury Area Young Musicians.
Cameron says he wants to encourage others with hidden disabilities that they can achieve great things through sport:
"People think my Autism and ADHD are disabilities and barriers, but when it comes to running, I feel like they give me a super-power that enables me to just keep going."
His mum Polly Jacobs says Cameron was pleased to hear about the support he's getting from Sarum Rotary:
"He was completely overjoyed. He's excited about improving holistically as an athlete and is looking forward to being able to discuss the challenges and highlights of training with his mentor. He sees this as a really incredible opportunity, not just for himself, but to hopefully inspire others, especially those with disabilities."
Cameron will be kept in contact with his mentor for the next 12 months.
Andrew Longland, from Sarum Rotary Club said:
"We were astounded by the quality of applications we received and it was a very difficult process to narrow them down to just one young athlete to award the scholarship to. Cameron appeared to be the sort of young athlete that would benefit greatly from having a world-class mentor who can help him with the mental resilience that's needed to compete at the highest level. We were also very pleased to hear that TAP have offered partial scholarships to the programme, from their own funds, to a couple more of the applicants that we assessed."
CAMERON'S MENTOR
He's been linked up with Paralympic Judo star, and Wiltshire resident, Chris Skelley for the next year.
Chris competed at the Rio 2016 Paralympics and became European Champion in 2017.
The visually impaired judoka is currently World Number 1 and met Cameron virtually for the first time on Sunday (17th January).