Young athletes boosted by new partnership between SportsAid and bounts

More of Britain’s best young athletes will get the financial support they need thanks to a new partnership between SportsAid and bounts.

Starting today, the digital health app will work with the charity to choose two rising stars a month from more than 60 sports who will receive SportsAid Awards of £1,000 each to help them stay in sport and compete at their best.

John Stuart, founder of bounts said, “bounts rewards people for being active, whatever the exercise. We offer that extra bit of motivation needed to get people moving and hopefully keep them moving. The young athletes that SportsAid works with will have motivation in abundance, they are clearly driven people with a goal in mind. The biggest challenge we can help them with is the financial support that allows them to continue their training. We are proud to be working with SportsAid to help the next generation of sport personalities achieve their ambitions."

He added, "We love that bounts brings together people from all ends of the spectrum. Our bounts members might not be chasing a gold medal and are simply focussed on the rewards exercising with bounts brings. Each month bounts members play their part in deciding which sport receives the funding. Each activity they complete acts as a vote for their preferred sport. It's a double benefit, the member earns points for themselves and gets the satisfaction of knowing young athletes are benefiting too. Members will hopefully get the ultimate reward of seeing some of the young athletes become sporting heroes one day and it was their bounts subscriptions and hard work that helped get them there.”

SportsAid’s chief executive Tim Lawler welcomed the news, saying, “bounts’ mission to keep people exercising at least once a day fits well with SportsAid’s work with young athletes, who are some of the most motivated and inspirational young people you are ever likely to meet. What they struggle with is the cost of their sport so for SportsAid to be able to provide these awards will be a major boost for them. We are delighted to launch the new partnership with bounts today.”

The first two athletes to benefit from the new partnership are tennis players Barney Fitzpatrick, 13 from Holmfirth in West Yorkshire (see photo), and Francesca Jones, 14 from Hindhead in Surrey, who is also originally from Yorkshire. Both are ranked in the top 20 in the country for their age.

Barney said, “I need to start entering Tennis Europe events now, which I have not done before due to the travel costs, so the funding will help to make this possible.”

Francesca also looks forward to competing at more international competitions thanks to the support from bounts and SportsAid. She said, “I will use the award to enter more tournaments in Europe which will help my development as a player. I want to continue working hard to develop my game in preparation for my first junior Grand Slam.”

SportsAid will help bounts to direct the support to the country’s most promising young athletes by ensuring each one is recognised by their sport’s national governing body.