Best of British Events hosts Paralympian for International Women’s Day

Rio gold medal winner is guest speaker at packed Brighton hotel, writes Jackie Ashwood.

Wow, just wow. What a truly fantastic and inspiring event from Best of British in celebration of International Women’s Day.

Last Thursday (March 2),  80 businessmen and women attended a lunch at Hotel Du Vin to hear from guest speaker Anne Usher MBE, a gold medal winning Paralympian for paracanoe in Rio. 

Anne’s story had the room in silence for over 30 minutes. It was a story of an ordinary person who faced setbacks before going on to win many competitions – including Gold for Team GB in Rio in 2012. 

The beneficiary of the special event was the GFS charity (Girls Friendly Society).

Anne was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and now lives in Oxted, Surrey.

She is a physiotherapist by profession and competed as an endurance mountain biker until she ruptured a disc in her back in 2011, which led to her developing cauda equina syndrome. That injury resulted in permanent nerve damage in her right leg.

Anne was a volunteer Games Maker at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, where she met Colin Radmore, a canoeing coach, who invited her to try out for the Great Britain paracanoeing team. She had to overcome seasickness when she first took up the sport, and underwent a desensitisation programme similar to those used by fighter pilots. 

In her first year of competition, she won gold at the 2013 European Championships and silver at the World Championships in the K-1 200m LTA class. In 2014 she successfully defended her European Championship title and won her first World Championship gold. In 2015 she won a third successive European Championship title and won the silver medal in the World Championships, competing in the K-1 200m KL3 class. At the 2016 World Championships she won gold in the K-1 200m KL3 class. 

Anne also won gold in the KL3 class at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, the first Paralympics to feature canoeing events, beating Amanda Reynolds by a margin of 0.03 seconds. 

Anne was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to canoeing.

About the beneficiary… GFS is a feminine charity that has spent almost 150 years supporting girls and young women. Today, it runs volunteered-led weekly groups for girls, where every girl is valued for who she is. The groups aims to create space where every girl is able to learn about herself.

Congratulations, Best of British Events, for such a fantastic event.

The event was delivered in collaboration with Healys solicitors and kindly sponsored by Seico Insurance and Kreston Reeves.