Waltham Forest Hockey Club’s Pani Theodorou has received recognition for her selfless dedication in helping children with disabilities take up and play hockey.

Theodorou played an instrumental role in setting up Forest Flyerz, the first pan-disability hockey section in London 18 months ago and since its inception, it has gone from strength to strength.

Waltham Forest works alongside Access Sport to help turn Forest Flyerz into the stand out programme when introducing disability sport into an existing club structure.

Theodorou has been a member at Waltham Forest for more than ten years. Before setting up Forest Flyerz, she helped run and coach a ladies fourth team as well as playing a key role in the creation of the Under-8s section.

She explained: “I was involved in helping to get a women’s team started up and then I began working on setting up the Forest Flyerz.

“I was approached by Access Sport who said they would support us with funding at the club.

“So from there we set up Forest Flyerz and we now have kids coming along every week to play hockey at the club.”

Flyerz now has 20 regular attendees and Theodorou is looking to help other clubs create similar sections.

She said: “When you see how much the children enjoy it, it is really rewarding and makes all the work that we put into it worthwhile. The kids that come along really gain more confidence from it.

“They love being part of a team and we are looking at competing against other clubs in the future.

“We are also holding adult sessions in January so it is really going from strength to strength.”

Theodorou continued: “We are supporting other clubs to help set up something similar to what we do with Forest Flyerz.

“Access Sport and England Hockey are both helping us do that. We are helping clubs around us but also nationwide.

“Hockey is a great sport to take part in but isn’t great in terms of inclusivity.”

Theodorou received the Inclusive Sports Award at Waltham Forest’s Celebrating Sport Awards before being honoured on TV show Surprise, Surprise on Sunday.

She was joined on the show by Ashleigh Ball, a member of Team GB’s bronze medal winning side at the London 2012 Olympics, and players from the squad took part in a special training session with Forest Flyerz.

“The kids loved it,” said Theodorou. “It was nice to have the Great Britain players come down and to get that support from them was great.

“I wasn’t there when the players arrived but I have had feedback that everyone really enjoyed the session.”

Waltham Forest Hockey Club collected a second award at the Waltham Forest’s Celebrating Sport Awards, as coach Matt Lovell collected the Volunteer of the Year honour for his efforts running junior Hockey and Rowing schemes in the borough.