EFFORTS to create sporting opportunities for disabled people in Dorset have ended in a prestigious award for Terry Dennis.

Since becoming disabled as a teenager, Terry has given back to the county community through sport, time and time again.

He has volunteered in wheelchair sports like basketball, fencing and para-cycling, and set up the Wessex Accessible Cycling Club.

After the pandemic, he launched the Dorset Demons, a wheelchair basketball team.

Not only did he set up the club, become chairman and head coach, he also succeeded in securing more than £20,000 in funding to ensure team members have safe and secure sports wheelchairs to compete in.

Terry with members of the Dorset Demons basketball team. Picture: BBC

And his efforts have seen him pick up a BBC Unsung Hero award, which celebrates the best volunteers in UK sport.

“I’m still a bit shocked to be honest. I wasn’t expecting that at all,” Terry said after receiving the award. “I don’t want to say a cliche like over the moon or anything like that, but that would be the ideal thing to say.”

The Dorset Demons continues to play, giving physically disabled adults who had been shielding at home during the pandemic the chance to start socialising again.

“I applied for some funding for some taster sessions just to see if there’s a need for wheelchair basketball in the county and it’s been very successful,” he said. “It’s turned into something special.”

The overall winner of the 2023 BBC Sports Personality Unsung Hero of the Year honour will be announced on December 19.

The overall winner will be announced on December 19