Gail Emms' Blog by Gail_Emms

Hello! Hope everyone is well? I know there are a few nasty bugs going around - colds and winter vomiting bugs and I have to say that I have been caught with both of them! Saturday I was all bunged up and stayed in bed (maybe didn't help that I had been out the night before and had a little wine...?!) and then on Tuesday afternoon/evening, the winter vomiting bug struck! I couldn't believe how quickly it started and for 6 hours, I was not in a good place! I got to know my bathroom very well indeed! But then it stopped, almost as quickly as it started. Very strange. I know there are varieties of this bug going about, so hopefully if you get it, you get the one I had!

I made it the next day to go to the Sports Journalists Awards at the Grand Connaught Rooms and it was interesting to see the people who I may have been a little critical of for the BBC SPOTY list!! There was a little tension in the air and congratulations to Rebecca Addlington for winning Sportswoman of the Year and to Mark Cavandish for Sportsman of the Year. There were also awards for Sarah Stevenson and Chrissie Wellington and Chrissie did a great speech when she got her award. There was great applause from many tables, but I did notice some were quiet and let's just say, as the room was 80% men, a lot were not going to admit they need to change attitudes!

I actually couldn't get away from Chrissie this week! I spent all last week talking about her and now I can't keep away from her - she probably thinks I am stalking her. It was the BBC Look East Sports Awards the next day and I had the huge honour of introducing Chrissie to the stage and she won "Outstanding Sporting Achievement" for 4x World Championship titles in Ironman Triathlon. For those of you who don't know what it entails, it's a 2.4 mile swim, followed by a 112 mile cycle ride and then a marathon. OMG, it hurts just writing it! And Chrissie does that in 8 hours and 19 minutes. A very well deserved award and another of many to come, I am sure.

I travelled up to Chester for a British Olympic Association event with Team Visa 2012 and to the Bank of America. I met up with some of the 2012 hopefuls who were there as well, Ciaran Williams from Handball, Sean Evans from Archery, Ian Sagar and Martin Edwards from Wheelchair basketball, John Stubbs from Disability Archery, Jack Hunter-Spivey from Wheelchair Table Tennis and James Huckle from Shooting. The guys did little demonstrations around the building and the employees came along and had a go. It went really well and although we weren't allowed to try shooting and archery (health and safety!) the day went really well.

I did a presentation talk about my journey and I had to do it into a camera which they transmitted around the whole company! It was a little weird as I am used to taking to people and this time I had to talk for 20 minutes into a camera lens! I think I did okay, but as the company is so big and they wanted everyone to hear the speech, this is what they came up with!! And a new skill for me as well! Please look out for the guys that I have mentioned above. They were all so friendly and amazingly skilled and I know they are going to do Team GB proud next year.

On Sunday, myself and ex-badminton partner Nathan Robertson, along with fitness coach Andy Allford, travelled to The Wirral to do another Master Class. Nothing completely abnormal there as I have done many Master Classes before and they have always been good fun - but this one was a little bit different because it was a Master Class for physically challenged and special needs players. I have worked with many children and adults through various projects and this was a really exciting opportunity for us to see how we can adapt badminton and make it fun and versatile for everyone. I have never had so much fun in a session as the players threw themselves into the activities and everyone was laughing.

There were four boys with severe learning difficulties who had tendencies to be violent and the teacher who was with them was a little concerned about how they were going to act, but they were no trouble at all. This is where sport can really help young people who find the "outside" world tough. These boys challenged themselves and stuck at it and it has given them the belief that they can be good at something. Hopefully they will continue to play the sport. This session has really reinforced my passion for sport in young people and how it can keep young people inspired, engaged and motivated no matter what their ability or disability. I really want to do more Master Classes like this one again.

And finally, I met up with Ben Maher who is a London 2012 hopeful from the world of Equestrianism and I interviewed him for my radio show "Road to 2102" for BBC 3 Counties Radio. I know so little about horses but I really tried to do my best interviewing Ben and trying to act like I knew what I was talking about. But you know when someone gives you that look as if to say "I know you are completely blagging this but I will play along anyway as I am finding it amusing!" Well Ben bless him was giving me that look a lot! But you know what, there must be many people like me in the same situation, but I loved being in the stable environment and seeing the horses. I may not know much, if anything, about that world, but I learned a lot and I hope Ben and all his other teammates for 2012 will help the general public really understand the sport. See you next week!