"Firstly, thank you so much for inviting me to be a part of this evening. It's a real honour and a privilege to join you on behalf of Archery GB.
As you know, the Chasing the Rio Dream campaign has been about developing the next generation of Paralympic archers aiming for the podium in 2016. A testament to how successful the partnership between the Fletchers and Archery GB has been is that currently, 80% of the archers on the Paralympic programme have come through activity which has been funded by the initiative.
From a personal perspective, I joined the team in 2014 following recruitment through the Recurves for Rio project. When it started, I was a true novice archer having only shot around a handful of times previously. However, joining the talent ID programme allowed me to benefit from coaching and development that fast-tracked me onto the GB squad in just 6 months.
Last year, I was proud to put on the flag shirt and began representing Great Britain at international competitions. Competing on the international stage meant acquiring a full second equipment setup, which as we all know, can be very costly. However, you once again helped me tremendously by awarding me a grant which helped me to fund the purchase. And I put it to good use. With this second set of equipment, I was able to go to the World Championships in Germany and win Britain a Paralympic quota place. This wouldn't have been possible for me without help from yourselves.
The team has just yesterday returned from the European Para Archery Championships held in St Jean de Monts, France where we won 6 medals in total, putting us second place on the medal tables.
Personally, I was overjoyed be part of the women's open recurve team and to bring back this bronze medal – my first medal from a major international competition. All 3 members of the our team came through initiatives which were funded by donations from yourselves.
In total, 11 GB archers that went to the Europeans came to the team through Fletchers funded initiatives. Without you and your invaluable contributions, we simply wouldn't have been able to achieve such fantastic results.
As you can imagine, we're now all working extremely hard towards Rio where we hope to bring home even more medals to ensure the continued success of Team GB. Your support is helping Archery GB to work all the way from a grassroots level to the elite to further develop the Paralympic pathway so that more disabled archers like myself will be able to one day chase their Paralympic dream. From all of us to all of you, thank you so much."
Tania Nadarajah – 12/4/16