Table Tennis England is proud to announce its support of Parkinson’s TT UK (PDTTUK). Members of the group are committed to enhancing and creating more table tennis opportunities for players with Parkinson’s (PwP) to engage with. Table Tennis England continues to support the #WeAreUndefeatable campaign, which supports people with a range of long-term health conditions and finds ways to be active that work with each person’s conditions, not against them. Our support of Parkinson’s TT UK furthers our commitment to this campaign.

PDTTUK support players with Parkinson’s (PwP) to play table tennis, exploring different ways to engage and support the Parkinson’s table tennis community. Working together with PDTTUK, our aim is to promote and enable more opportunities for players to engage in the sport and for those who wish to do so, feel comfortable to progress through to competitive play.

This area of work has come about thanks to table tennis player and coordinator of PDTTUK Andrew Cassy, who was diagnosed with early onset Parkinson’s at the age of 44 in 2010.

Andrew, a former IT project manager for BT, has played table tennis for more than 30 years and credits the sport with slowing the progress of his Parkinson’s. Andrew wants to spread the word among those with Parkinson’s about how the sport might help them – but has also been inspired by hearing about the Ping Pong Parkinson’s World Championships 2 years ago, and aims to get an England team ready to compete at future Championships.

Andrew says: “It was only when I read about the Parkinson’s World Championships a couple of years ago that I was intrigued to find out more about the positive effects of the sport.

“So now, I’m keen to spread the word at both ends of the spectrum. I feel I want to encourage others to give table tennis a try and ensure we get UK or English representation at the next World Championships. I’d be really proud if we could do that.”

2021 will in fact see the UK’s very first UK Table Tennis Championships for players with Parkinson’s. The event has been scheduled for 21st August 2021 at St Neots TTC in Cambridgeshire, with registration and entries closing on the 9th August. For more information on the event, click here.

Once safe to do so, we hope to introduce the sport to the wider Parkinson’s community. Andrew and others linked with PDTTUK are members of Team Parkinson’s. To find out more and to seek support if living with Parkinson’s, click here.

Also coming soon is a players with Parkisnon’s specific session funded by our inclusivity funding with Rowhedge TTC. Look out for more details in the coming weeks!