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In April 2015, I was officially named Head Coach of my lifelong club and took on a 25 hour tennis marathon as part of CTC's 25th anniversary celebrations raising £660 for Velindre Cancer Centre!

Despite not originally planning to be a career tennis coach (you may or may not know that I studied ICT/computers at university), the past 10 years have been an amazing journey for myself, the Club and the 100s, if not 1000s, of players that I've worked with (some for those 10 years and more!).

In this time, I have had so many highlights that I truly treasure. From major things like CTC winning Tennis Wales Club of the Year in 2018 AND 2019, and having Judy Murray visit in 2017 to officially reopen our redeveloped facilities, to getting a high 5 from a child as they fall in love with tennis or an adult saying they tried something we worked on it won them the point, to growing and evolving as a coach and a person, plus so many amazing mini moments in each session...

So, to mark a decade I want to take on another epic tennis challenge with the goal to raise £2,000 for a public access defibrillator and external lockable cabinet at the Club, and have come up with the idea of...

Playing 10 sets each day, for 10 days over the Easter Holidays!

Throughout the challenge I will play with and against players from all ages/stages of our programme, from 5 year old Red players right through to Adults, as well as showcase various formats of tennis including Sensory/disability tennis, touchtennis and walking tennis.

So why fundraise for a defibrillator?

*More than 30,000 people have an out-of-hostpital cardiac arrest in the UK every year. And with chances of survival decreasing by up to 10% every minute without medical help, having a defibrillator at the Club could be lifesaving if any of our users or local community needs it.*

Given tennis is a full body workout, the wide range of individuals (age, fitness levels etc) that use the club, along just the sheer number of users (we've had 1,000+ unique people access the Club in each of the past 3 years!), the risk of someone having a cardiac arrest does naturally increase. We have identified a model which can switch easily between adult and child modes so can be used in all situations, and that is automatic making it even easier for anyone to use (even without training as they follow the prompts and the machine gives a shock if needed).

We would install an external lockable cabinet just outside our main entrance gate and list the defibrillator on The Circuit (national defibrillator network) meaning that it would be accessible 24/7 to the wider community should they ever need it. There's a children's play park right next to us and the Club is surrounded by residential properties (with more to be built at Virginia Park Golf Club).

The £2,000 target will cover the purchase of an iPAD SP1 fully automatic defibrillator and a DefibSafe 2 external locked cabinet, plus the installation costs (mounted post and electrical wiring) of said cabinet. There would also be introductory training for our users.

We would love to see those who play at the Club (whether regularly or less frequently), their family and friends, our neighbours in Virginia Park and the wider community support this fantastic cause and in turn help me celebrate a decade as Head Coach of Caerphilly Tennis Club!

Diolch // Thank you,

Jon at CTC