A KARATE charity for disabled people has been handed almost £40,000 to train new coaches and help members gain new skills.

The European Commission has given the €50,000 grant to Old Marston-based Disability Karate Federation just over two years after it was founded by instructor Ray Sweeney.

Mr Sweeney, from Old Marston, has coached karate for more than 20 years and in 2012 he read research which suggested the martial art could benefit people with physical disabilities and learning difficulties.

Now his charity works with about 300 people in Oxfordshire, and across the UK is planning for 3,000 new members in 2015.

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The 57-year-old said: “We are lifting people up and giving them more self-esteem and more confidence.

“We decided to create a project where disabled people can come together with people working in media and studying media.

“For example, they can create a website for deaf or blind people or for people with learning difficulties which is easy for them to use.

“We are taking 12 disabled people from the UK over to Belgium and they will work with people who are studing media and we will bring 12 people from Belgium here to do the same.”

The grant is making initiatives possible which the charity could not afford when it was founded.

Mr Sweeney said education and the martial arts were linked, particularly for those with disabilities.

He said: “When I first started karate I would see that changes were occurring in the people around me and also within myself. I noticed, for example, there were people who were really benefiting.

“One guy went on to become an aerospace engineer and another became a sound engineer.”

Some of the grant will be spent on training more coaches across the UK so more disabled people can benefit from karate classes.

Mr Sweeney, who is married to Nikki and has two sons, 18-year-old Christian and 16-year-old Adam, said: “We are getting more coaches with proper qualifications across the UK. We need coaches who are experienced in inclusion and disability classes and skills with the disabled.”

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