Coventry & District Walking Football Club applied for and received grants in 2023 from both the National Lottery Community Fund and Coventry City Council for our project that "Age Is No Barrier to Health & Well Being".
Last week we submitted an interim report to Allison Lister, Funding Officer at the National Lottery Community Fund, to describe how we endeavoured to meet the requirements of the National Lottery Community Fund. The following article formed the basis of our report and was supported by a detailed spreadsheet, which itemised our spending to date.
Our article below describes what we achieved in several areas, giving examples and links to appropriate articles that demonstrated the benefits derived from the funding program and the impact it had on the health and well-being of our new and existing members. You will note this article also references Coventry City Council to support our program specifically in the local Coventry area.
On receiving the report Allison commented: "Thank you for such a comprehensive review of how your project has gone. I really enjoyed reading your report, the testimonials and watching the video of the football. It was also good to see how you are recording the use of our grant and how you have acknowledged our funding including in the press articles. Thanks again for taking the time to put this together for me, and I hope the club continues to go from strength to strength in the future."

Coventry & District Walking Football club, by providing walking football opportunities for individuals over the age of 50, aims to promote their physical and mental well-being and to enable them to lead healthier and more active lives.
Our program supports participants in maintaining their fitness, mobility and social connections, helping them reach their potential in terms of overall better health and quality of life.
By engaging older adults in regular physical activity and fostering a supportive community we empower them to enhance their well-being and make positive lifestyle choices.
Camaraderie develops along with new friendships with life issues often discussed amongst participants and creating positivity.
We are pleased and proud of our achievements so far.
Looking ahead we will be continuing with our activities and will seek a collective view from our membership, including committee members and our Facebook users on what is going well and what learnings and suggestions we can take on board so that we can continue to deliver against our overall aims and objectives. 
Information Online & Photos of Project Activities
We launched the program alongside the Coventry & District Walking Football website in October 2023.
We headlined the launch of our website with the following article that still leads the news on our website today. Click here to see our article on Coventry & District Walking Football Club
In this article we explain who we are, our beginnings and our aims. We also explain how we changed our name to make it clearer that we cover Coventry and its surrounding area.
In it we expressed our delight when our funding applications from both the National Lottery Community Fund and Coventry City Council were granted. Both were warmly received and greatly appreciated.
We have been actively using our website to capture news articles, photo albums and videos.
The following video captures the essence of our walking football sessions. Click here to see the video of our Walking Football Session in November 2023
And a few photos of our session over the festive period. Click here to see the photos of our: Walking Football Session in the Dome
It is more than just playing though – we meet in the on-site café after each morning session for a cuppa and a chat and enjoy the cakes and goodies that Kim, Russ’s wife brings or just celebrate someone’s birthday and of course enjoy Cec’s legendary fruit cake! Take a look. Click here to see the photos of our After Session Chats and Refreshments
We also have club events that members and their partners are invited to with the most recent being our Christmas Party.
Since 8th September 2023 and helped by our new website and other local advertising through Yourcall magazine, we have added 20 new members and grown our membership to 100 members, an increase of 25% on previous numbers. We now have 28 members aged between 50 and 59, 41 between 60 and 69 and 31 over 70 with our oldest member being 79.
Our weekly football sessions run Monday and Thursday mornings and a Friday evening primarily for those who are still working, although we have all age groups attend all our sessions. Attendance at our morning sessions has grown considerably from around 24 players in May 2023 to around 34 now and recently peaking at 44! This is great news. However, if the numbers continue to grow, then we will need to work out how best to accommodate more players using the current facilities.
With the growing membership we have added a defibrillator to increase our ability to support a larger group of members and to provide coverage across multiple locations when our members play in various competitions, league and friendly matches. Click here to see the article on the New Defibrillator
Free Sessions & Refreshments
The funding received from the National Lottery Community Fund has enabled us to provide free football to our members for our Monday and Thursday morning football sessions and free refreshments for a limited period of time. The funding we received from Coventry City Council allowed us to provide free sessions and refreshments to our over 50s group on Friday evenings. This was communicated through our membership face book site and by word of mouth.
Press Releases / Articles / Advertising
Increasing our exposure through our website and our participation in the local Birmingham Walking Football League has not only attracted new members, but also interest from the wider walking football community. In particular the Walking Football and Football League Associations (WFA and FA), resulting in them approaching us to host international friendlies and national regional finals in early 2024 with the prospect of more to come.
By hosting these prestigious events we were able to extend our reach using popular Coventry media outlets including CVLife, the Coventry Observer and the Coventry Evening Telegraph as follows:
• Click here to see the article from CVLife
• Click here to see the article from the Coventry Observer
• Click here to see the article from the Coventry Evening Telegraph
In all these articles we were able to promote our club and advertise the support we receive from the National Lottery Community Fund and Coventry City Council in our quest that “age is no barrier to health and well-being’ and for the “benefit of the community in the local Coventry area”.
We were visited by Phil Upton from BBC Coventry and Warwickshire Radio who came along to see what we do and interview some of our members. His interview aired on BBC CWR during 2023 and told our story to the wider Coventry and Warwickshire area. There was also a short reference made to this story in the local BBC Midlands News TV programme.
As a club, Coventry and District Walking Football club feels it is important to also contribute to the well-being of the local community. We do this by supporting charity events and making donations to local charities, which are close to our member’s hearts.
We have supported many charities over the years and most recently:
• In October 2023 we held our annual Memorial Mini Tournament to honour our friends and former players that have sadly passed away. A total of £195 was raised by the raffle and was donated to a local charity. Click here to see the article from the Memorial Day Tournament
• In December 2023 we took part in a walking football tournament involving “Kicking Cancer” and “McMillan Cancer” teams raising £200 for Kicking Cancer. Click here to see the article on Kicking Cancer Sponsorship
• We also donated £300 to the Prostrate Cancer PSA Testing Group in February this year. Click here to see the article on
PSA Testing Donation
• In February one of our founding members Fred Scholes passed away and in his memory our club donated £100 to Mary Ann Evans Hospice a local charity in the Coventry area and £100 to Marie Curie. Click here to see the article of our dear Fred Scholes
Our club is also planning to support a community-based walking football event within a deprived community in the Coventry area. The plan is to play an exhibition match to show how accessible walking football is for all age groups and to promote the health and well-being benefits that it can bring. Two of our club members, a vicar from the local church and a pastor from the local area are organising the event.
Testimonials / Feedback
As shown in the testimonials below, walking football is helping individuals to be active and social, demonstrating the benefits that “age is no barrier to health and well-being”.
Every member will have their own story to tell and we have included several below:
• Strato, a new player who joined after his daughter contacted the club through the website, said: “Since I retired in January after 50 years working in a Foundry, I’ve joined this fantastic club. Even though my fitness level is not good I have been given great encouragement from everyone and good advice. A “health check” by my doctor found I had heart and breathing problems. I could not stand up properly and would get out of breath quickly. After 2 months of walking football my breathing has improved and I can now walk upstairs without support, my legs are also getting stronger and I’m improving all the time. I have found new people that give me the motivation to come back week after week. Thank you to all club members.”
• Dyal said: I worked for 30 years as a heart specialist, treating patients with all manner of heart problems, especially heart attacks. At the age of 68 I retired fully, hoping to have a restful retirement with my wife of nearly 50 years. Unfortunately, she developed chronic ill health and was then diagnosed with untreatable cancer. She died about 7 weeks after diagnosis. I went suddenly from a very active and rewarding career to being all alone with no real purpose in my life. I had always had a keen interest in sport, especially football and had been a capable but average player. I talked to my son and I expressed a wish to try walking football, as the sport I had enjoyed most when I was younger was football. He made enquiries for me at his rugby club, where he found two mates who played walking football at Coventry (formerly Bedworth) & District Walking Football Club in Coventry. My son discovered I could just turn up to play. I eventually did in January 2023, about eighteen months after my Wife’s death. I have to say that joining WF has been the most beneficial thing I have done since my Wife died. Even though I did not know anybody at C&DWFC, I was warmly welcomed and immediately accepted as “one of the lads”. I soon went twice weekly and quickly made friends with many of the members. I had always kept myself reasonably fit, so the physical benefit of regular exercise, although obviously beneficial, was not the most important aspect of going to walking football. My mental health was where I most benefited. Whatever else was going on in my life, I woke up with anticipation on the days I was due to go to walking football. Then when I got to walking football, I enjoyed the camaraderie and social interaction of the football, and the chats over coffee and cake afterwards. I cannot thank the Club enough for how easily they accepted me into their ranks, and how much support they gave me when I talked to them about my feelings after my Wife’s death. I have also been able to use my medical knowledge to help several members of the Club, which has given me an additional purpose in life. I feel a more useful member of society and am much happier as a result. Thank goodness for Walking Football! I will always be grateful to C&DWFC for how much they have improved my quality of life. I feel as if I have made a whole group of new friends whom I will cherish forever.
• Cliff said: I’ve been playing walking football now for nearly 5 years. I enquired originally through Russ, who he invited me to a session. All the lads made me feel so welcome. It’s a great place to play the slower paced game. I enjoy the weekly sessions, especially Friday evenings and the league games representing Coventry & District Walking Football Club.
• Lewis said: “When I recently moved from Berkshire, I was keen to carry on playing walking football, which I had started 8 months earlier in Berkshire. I found Coventry & District Walking Football and joined. I was warmly welcomed into the club and have made new friends. The level of play is what I have got used to and keeps me fit and mobile. The people here are a little different to the Berkshire folk and a bit “industrial”.
• Mike said: "Taking up walking football has given me a whole new lease of life in more ways than one. Being able to play football albeit at a slower pace, from my 60s into my 70s in such a healthy, mentally stimulating environment has been a massive boost. It has also opened up a whole new social circle; strangers have become team-mates, drinking buddies, quiz participants and genuinely close friends.
Even more significantly, joining the walking football group probably saved my life. An encouragement to raise awareness of prostate cancer and for club members to have regular PSA blood tests, led me to receiving the diagnosis of early-stage prostate cancer. Sharing this mind-numbing news with some fellow members who had already gone through a similar experience and being guided and supported by them throughout my successful treatment was something for which I am eternally grateful".
• Steve said: "I started playing walking football in 2017. I have made many new friends who have helped me realise just how much I was missing playing and the banter that is so special".
• Barry said: "I would never have imagined playing any version of football at the age of 70 and with a great social group of people that give me confidence and support".
• Lol said: “I was introduced to walking football in 2015 and it has been a life changer for me making new friends and re-connecting with old ones. The old skills have returned and I have the choice of just playing social football or competitive league football. The best things are I have shed 4 stone and I am feeling fit and healthy and enjoy a good social life”.

END OF ARTICLE