The 3 Key Takeaways from Lucy Sheehan’s Podcast Interview

This blog post was written as part of my 12 week internship at Pulse Social, where part of my role was to write and produce blog posts surrounding different topics within sports.

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In my recent podcast interview with Lucy Sheehan, a communications professional with extensive experience in public relations who currently works with Team BRIT, an all-disabled motorsport team which supports people with physical disabilities and psychological challenges, we spoke about the work Team BRIT does and what they hope to achieve.

So, for those of you in a hurry to work or for those of you currently enjoying the sun on the beach and unable to listen to full podcast right now, here are three key takeaways from our conversation that really stood out to me personally.

1. “Don’t close yourself off to the chance that you could do something more.”

Having a disability can have an incredible impact on an individual’s mental, emotional and physical health and this is especially true when an individual first learns they have a disability that will likely impact them for the rest of their life.

This can consequently cause these individuals to sometimes have the mind-set that they won’t be able to do a lot of the activities and hobbies they love.

Lucy explained how, at Team BRIT, one of the key aims they have is to prove to disabled individuals that it is still possible for them to get involved in motorsport (and this applies to other sports too!).

Thanks to Team BRIT’s specialised hand controls, which are the world’s most advanced, it allows their disabled drivers, for example their current GT4 driver Aaron Morgan, to race on a level playing field within the world of motorsports.

What the team like to do, especially the CEO and Founder of Team BRIT Dave Player, is reach out to younger people who might have either been born with a disability or had an accident and invite them along to meet the team.

“It’s just about showing them how this is the situation these guys (our drivers) are in and this is what they managed to do, and it might be that the people we meet don’t ever want to be a racing driver and that’s not the point,” Lucy said.

“It’s more about don’t close yourself off to the chance that you could do something more. And, with people with severe disabilities, it can be more complex but technology is such an enabler and it opens its own mini door to people in ways that they couldn’t ever imagine.”

2. “It is about trying to inspire others.”

At Team BRIT, Lucy explained how for her and the rest of the team, they believe what they do as a team is showing people across the world how it is possible for disabled drivers to race and year by year, they’re getting closer and closer to this.

“A lot of people, when we did the launch back in 2017 and they heard what we were trying to do, especially a lot of people in motorsport, would have thought there’s no chance,” Lucy said.

“No, they can’t be that competitive, the funding they need, and the tech they need. And there’s no doubt about it. It is hard but we’re slowly getting there.”

In the podcast, Lucy also explained how Team BRIT were initially formed and their journey from focusing only on disabled military professionals to expanding their focus to everyone and anyone with disabilities and psychological challenges.

What stood out the most here for me is how everyone has a story that is personal to them. For disabled individuals in particular, it is important to note that their story is not defined by their disability, rather it is defined by the challenges they face and overcome both alone and with the support of others. Just like everyone else.

However, this is not to say that one’s disability should be discounted from their story. Rather, by sharing their personal story and the challenges they have faced, it can be a catalyst for change and action in others, regardless of who they are and whether they have a disability or not.

3. “Our job is to provide an infrastructure around them to make it happen.”

In our podcast, Lucy talked about how one of their team’s drivers Bobby was diagnosed with severe autism when he was four but after he found karting, this absolutely changed his life and was in many ways an escape for him.

“He became a five times karting champion at a time when things in his life were actually quite hard,” she said. “And he now calls his autism his superpower. But he’s constantly had people tell him he won’t be able to do this, he won’t be able to do that.”

“He was told he wouldn’t be able to get his driving licence and he was told he wouldn’t be able to get a racing licence and he’s done exactly that. And now he’s a GT4 driver winning races and it’s just incredible.”

Lucy then spoke of how hard their drivers work because of just how much they want to be there racing and doing what they love and how as a team, the goal is to make sure they do everything they can to support their drivers.

“We just need to do what we can as a team and our job is to put the infrastructure around them to make it happen,” Lucy said. “So that’s driver development, constant innovation in tech and putting the financial support behind it all, which is mammoth as anyone who knows anything about racing will know.”

What needs to be taken from what Lucy talks about is how in any sports, be it motorsports or football or basketball or cricket or whatever it may be, it is down to us to make sports accessible and doable for everyone.

And whether this means you make sure to speak up when you feel an organisation could be doing more to make what they offer more accessible or affordable, or you educate yourself and those around you on disability sports and try to have these important conversations, or even if this simply means you volunteering for an hour once a week or every fortnight to help out your local community, there is always something that you can do to help.

Because as a collective, anything is possible.

By Abby K Lake

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Read the article at Pulse Social: https://pulsesocial.co.uk/blogs/f/the-3-key-takeaways-from-lucy-sheehan’s-podcast-interview