weekly update

Week 36 – busy few days, a lot happening and I actually shot some arrows of my own 🥳😱😉

Helen Sharpe Joining forces for strength, weekly update
Yeah! Flinging arrows at last!

So I am technically unemployed for a few days as I await the new job to be sorted, I could sit and relax but we all know that ends badly, we are after all approaching the 3rd anniversary of impaling myself on a tree for those who forget I don’t just sit and chill! 😱🫣

So what have I done:

  1. Sensory football webchat and discussions around conversation and instructions for complex needs with SENSE.
  2. meeting with AGB.
  3. catch up and planning with DISC for Northamptonshire Carers and everything back on track, including two new coaches on board with Integr8Archery to support our community groups and aims for sustainable archery – exciting on several points.
  4. First face to face Integr8Archery club committee as both August and October were online.
  5. on top of this there have been 5 other meetings around existing projects, coaches and new instructors and coaches.
  6. meeting with sport4fitness to finalise plans for their CIC and the groups that we will introduce archery to, including re-starting the out of school educated groups and the Send4dads group.
  7. Today I have a Sport England webinar.

I have had lots of fun this weekend, shooting three times 😱😂🫣 maybe I will soon be back to my 800 – 1000 arrows a week after all! 4 ranges, countless friends, county squad mates – essentially my archery family. Smiles, hugs, chatting, a couple of tearful moments but mostly just back in my safe places with people who I am safe to be around, never to be underestimated and very definitely proof that the fight to stay with my sport was worth it. Days where I most definitely thought I was beaten since November 21 but this week was proof it’s worth fighting for.

I am putting in an order to lionhart in the next week or so and for anyone who wants one I only have 5 Integr8Archery big bobble hats left from the initial production batch. Let me know if you want anything.

I shall be out and about this next week and hope to catch up with more people whilst getting ready to announce some events that we will be hosting, so keep your eyes open. Stay safe ❤️🏹

Integr8Archery CIC and Sport4fitness CIC – collaboration for the community

Life is a rollercoaster? Archery certainly is 😂🫣❤️🏹

Helen Sharpe weekly update

So lots of meetings and a couple of webinars so far this week, definitely highlights such as chatting through plans with AGB, an adaptive multi sports webinar and looking at complex communication strategies and getting the DISC sessions back on track with Northamptonshire Carers.

Plans in place for 8th May which I will give more details about next week, but very exciting after a year of work to get the first group organised and planned.

My archery? We know I work hard with my pain to shoot, sitting was not an easy change and last year a number of things collided to see me almost walk away from the sport as a whole.

I last shot properly on New Year’s Eve eve! Arranged some shooting time at a couple of places yesterday and came away with a PB for a Portsmouth and those few extra points moved it from a D classification score to a C – which I have never had for a Portsmouth!

So today? I have booked myself in for a scored round – Worcester and I have created myself a new plan.

My focus this year enjoying those 8 days of archery at Dunster and my flight season. Had a bit of a wobble when I looked at the new classification tables having set myself a target but looking closely I think I may have set myself something out of reach so, let’s see what happens?

I was asked about how Integr8Archery has people around the country?

Two things:

  1. schools or community groups where the person leading the sessions work with me and I support them in their aims – like me, sustainable long term archery in places there has been no access to the sport, a lot are schools but not all.
  2. archers who I have supported through various things, mostly change but who thought maybe archery was something they needed to leave behind or loose. Sure I support them, but they also support me – Integr8Archery is a support network to keep us all doing the thing we love.

So with that in mind, thank you to everyone who has kept me going when I have truly seen no alternative to walking away. Have a great weekend and as always may your arrows fly strong ❤️🏹

Week 35! Exciting things coming together 🥳

Helen Sharpe Joining forces for strength, News, weekly update

So many meetings in the last week! In person, online and by phone. Amazing things coming together though so definitely worth it all and the juggling act to fit it all in.

A year after first discussing accessibility to sport for the local Muslim community with Northamptonshire Sport, we have finally got dates in the calendar for the first sessions, so pleased we have made the efforts to keep communication open and cannot wait to see what we all achieve together – collaboration is amazing and makes us stronger by working together.

The first meeting of the Children’s Coaching Collaborative was fantastic, so many people across multiple sports coming together for the same aims – that “children first” is the important element of what we do when working with juniors and must remain the focus of everything we do. The Voice, Choice, Journey campaign is going to be a great launch platform and if you haven’t already taken a look at the collaborative I would very much recommend you join up and get involved.

This led me really quite well into some amazing discussions at the regions/home nations/Archery GB 2 day get together with some great topics and ways we can move things forward around a number of things, especially Safeguarding which is my most important focus as many of you know, and again I am looking forward to the future meetings to see what we can all accomplish by working together across all of the topics.

We are Undefeatable was a great conversation across multiple sports and platforms that encourage activity and again a new campaign launching soon that I will be pleased to support.

Incredibly proud of some of the friends of Integr8Archery this week with news of many things from achievements to

pushing their own boundaries but I know most are making their own announcements so I will not be stealing their thunder – but I think I have messaged or spoken to most 🥳👏🏻 well done to you all.

Thanks to a few days between changing day jobs I have managed to book a heap of things in the next few days too so as I slide towards 9 months I am so proud of everything that is coming together.

See you all soon, and yes I actually have plans to shoot my own bow this week 😱😉❤️🏹 and the first in person get together for the Integr8Archery Club committee who have been getting on great virtually so hopefully we will do face to face 🙃

Week 34 – possible trigger – be aware 🤗

Helen Sharpe Blog with a message, Health, weekly update
What do you see when you look at these?

Happy pancake day!
How do you prefer them – sweet or savoury – I enjoy both and have no issue with having both in one sitting? Hence the weight I need to loose 🫣😂

Lots of planning and catch up in this last week means lots of meetings this coming week, excited to hear some of what will be discussed. Today I have the first of two meetings with coaches who work on my projects and I shall be feeding them pancakes 🥞 they may just be distracted enough to agree to my ideas whilst eating 😉

So I shall need to think about what to feed those that I shall be meeting later in the week.

I said this may contain a trigger warning.

About 10 days ago I was asked to consider talking/writing about my lived experiences with mental health and suicide. I have agreed and have been putting lots of thoughts down on paper, some things I can’t discuss, some I won’t – but that still leaves plenty to share. Why? Only by talking can we continue to work to remove stigma and to make it more freely acceptable to talk about issues that we are facing and this might help others when faced with their own darkest thoughts to reach out to someone.

As I have considered what I should include, I kept coming back to how we never know what someone is going through and often those of us are in a dark place are hiding it for various reasons but mainly to protect ourselves or to protect others.

So – take a look at those two images at the top of the page.
Taken about 8 months apart – Both versions of me were facing huge challenges but sharing very little.

The first? – I was sharing information and excited about lots of projects and plans but that version of me felt she had a place, a purpose and some worth. She felt loved and cared for and safe. She felt she mattered and that people could see her.

The second? – I had been to the hospital a couple of days earlier, finding myself in a place where the only answer was to save everyone from having to deal with me by simply no longer being here. I didn’t discuss it with anyone but I had it all planned, a small handful of people were aware of some of the challenges that I was facing – most were the same challenges in both photographs, but my worth, value, feeling of being safe had been removed – dramatically so. I certainly no longer felt I added anything other than burden to anyone’s life. Certainly didn’t feel loved. I will be forever grateful that on that day some sent a message that reached in, they didn’t know, but somehow the universe did.

Both show me laughing, I learned many years ago to hide, and I do! Daily! An incredibly small number of people have enough information now to be able to offer me support, 2 outside the medical profession know everything. I shall continue to hide, but that request to consider sharing my experiences feels important and as I sit writing everything down and looking at what I can’t or won’t share, I do also need to think about who my sharing will impact, namely my children.

But we all see those memes and messages about be careful you never know what a person is going through. Those two photos I think are an excellent example – 8 months apart, both laughing but very very different and both hiding so very much.

So one day at a time and I move forward. Much love to you all and if you are struggling – reach out to someone – I promise you are loved and valued more than you will allow yourself to believe ❤️

If you have been triggered by anything here please visit Mind to find help.

Laughter can hide so very much

33 weeks and school/club/community partnership agreed 🥳

Helen Sharpe Announcement, Joining forces for strength, News, weekly update


If you have followed any of what I have done in the last 2 years you will be very aware of the archery in education project.

Having already worked in schools in small ways the approach by Northamptonshire Sport in May 2021 really allowed me to focus on what was achievable with Archery in schools and we now have archery in curriculum, elective sessions, after school and school clubs depending upon which school you visit. Some have multiple sessions from the list.

However, 1 school in particular, has shared our goals for how we would like to work together and with the community benefiting from the partnership.

Meetings and ideas and discussions around what we can achieve mean that this week we have agreed the partnership between Integr8Archery and Weavers school in Wellingborough.

Weavers have elective sessions whilst we await instructors and session coach training and we can look at the curriculum sessions. The Weavers/Integr8Archery school club will be fully completed in the next few weeks and Integr8Archery Club, which includes the school club, will be shooting weekly at Weavers on Saturdays and Sundays.

There will also be:

A one day event

A two day event

both indoor and outdoors with dates to fit with the county and AGB planned events. We look forward to announcing details of these 6 days of competitions soon and to jointly hosting archers at our competition events. We will be starting with the indoor season 23/24.

These events will be to raise funds for the school archery and also the projects for Integr8Archery which is a not for profit community interest company.

We have been approached by a number of people to provide beginners courses and more community groups who want sessions for various things. We now have a place to host these, some will be free and some will have charges which again will fund the school archery and the projects of Integr8Archery.

We are incredibly proud to see what we can achieve by working together as a school, club and community interest company to achieve our goals for the local community, not least our belief that by offering young people alternative ways to spend their time and provide access to sport we might improve or change lives and hopefully help prevent even 1 person making the choice that sees young people find themselves in a situation that they feel impossible to leave, and we know that unfortunately in current times this situation is leading to increased street violence which is more frequently in the news.

So, we have lots of things planned and more announcements around this partnership in coming weeks but we are very excited about how we may fulfil our goals together.

On a personal level I would like to thank in particular Magnus and Scott at Weavers and Chris and Ben at Integr8Archery Club. There are others who have helped by listening to me at all hours too and my dad was thrilled as we sat on New Years Eve and I discussed how close we were to finalising our plans. I am grateful to have people who believe in me.

Take care and speak soon.

Optimistic in week 32 – I am who I am due to amazing role models that I have been blessed to have in my life.

Helen Sharpe Numbers and stats, weekly update


We all know that archery is great for mental health. My family have pulled together in recent weeks as we approached the day of dad’s funeral but loosing dad on the 3/1/23 was the second huge blow we had faced in a few short weeks as we had lost my uncle, Philip Hinchley on 14/11/22. These two amazing men could not be better role models, their belief in family and friends but also as examples of spending many hours freely for the benefit of others. Dad did this through the Buffs and helped raise money for charity, Uncle Philip was heavily involved in the Woodstock Minor Soccer Association. Their dedicated belief that a person can use their time to make a difference has definitely influenced my belief in the same. I am some times asked why I volunteer so many hours of my time for others, mostly now through sport but in other ways too. Well, because they have both shown me what can be achieved by someone with determination.

Grief has brought so many of us together from 3 countries and on Saturday some of us were kindly hosted by Wellingborough Open Archery Club to shoot together and in some cases have their first taste of our sport. Thank you to those who coached but also the members who took the time to chat and share their love of archery with my family. A warm welcome was extended to us.

Again it’s been another week of meetings and planning and online catch ups and the coaches have been sharing what’s happening in the various groups. Exciting to get a message from a coach on Monday to tell me that another 50 children have been taught to safely shoot in their PE lessons – curriculum is such a huge step in the schools who have welcomed Integr8Archery and the archery in education project in to their school.

Whatever you are doing this week, enjoy it and stay safe, but stay in touch too ❤️🏹

Week 31 – learning, collaborating and some new starts

Helen Sharpe Blog with a message, weekly update
The weather will continue to improve and I will be back out there shooting ❤️🏹

Meetings, meetings and more meetings – I mean, I do like coffee 😉

I am excited for the things that spring looks to be bringing for Integr8Archery and the projects and I cannot wait to start sharing details properly.

This coming week sees some more planning meetings but I will be north for 11 days so you will likely only get virtual contact nothing in person, but I will be available so please do stay in touch.

Tonight I will attending critical bleed training provided and funded by Off the Street. If you are in the local area they are hosting a number of these events follow the link and take a look at their Facebook page to see if there’s one you might be able to attend. I would ask you to take a look at the knife angel – anti violence page on the website and consider signing up to the campaign, if we each do something small, together we can make a massive difference in giving young people an alternative.

February is fast filling up with meetings and events not just around Integr8Archery and the projects but my other roles, such as safeguarding – which I believe is fundamentally one of the most important things that we can all be aware of, please don’t ever ignore something because you think someone else will act.

Thank you to the friends of Integr8Archery who have been keeping in touch to let me know how their shooting is going, I never take for granted that I am allowed in to people’s lives to support them and I do enjoy seeing you all out and about and on the shooting line. See you soon.

Missing my pretty arrows ❤️🏹 but I shall be back on the line soon🙃

Week 30 – what am I doing because you aren’t seeing me on the range?

Helen Sharpe Blog with a message, weekly update
Let’s regain some of the excitement please

I was asked if I am not at home and I am not on the range what I am doing? How can I be committed to my projects?

My initial response was almost rude but I thought about how best to deal with the question, particularly in the face of the last 13 months of things that have been said and emailed or sent on various platforms. In that time I have never once been rude, disrespectful or unkind, to the sender or the people who are ultimately responsible for the issues in broken promises – that I too have been victim of!

My replies have continued to show respect and support to those people and their businesses.

I have repeatedly explained that if you made plans based on promises and ideas given to you by someone we would have been mutually working with, their change of plans and how that impacts you is not my fault and I cannot answer questions that I do not have answers to. You need to contact that person.

So to send me a message today that basically states what I am going through is a suitable punishment for my perceived failure is really not ok, on any level and basic human empathy should prevent such a message even being sent!

Currently my time is spent Friday evening to Monday evening in Derbyshire providing the support that I am giving. I am working my paid employment Monday to Friday with some small tweaks to my shift patterns.

Integr8Archery is still a huge focus, I never stopped.

This week?

Wednesday 7:30 a meeting before work at a school with a willing level 2 coach to help me confirm my thoughts before we both started our paid employment at 9:30. Lunch time meeting to discuss ideas and send emails. Evening sending and replying to emails, arranging more meetings.

Thursday – 5:30 to 7:30 & 22:00 to 23:45 emails, letters, plans being drawn up and sent out.

Friday 2 telephone calls at 19:00 – 19:30

Saturday 7:00 blog update and 20:15 emails

Sunday 8:00 to 9:30 & 20:30 to 21:45 emails and telephone calls.

Monday 19:45 to 21:25 emails, messaging and telephone calls.

Tuesday 5:30 to 7:00 emails, 16:45 to 17:30 meeting with activity partnership, 19:00 to 20:00 meeting with club secretary re membership, sport80 and some future planning.

From my point of view it doesn’t look too bad for someone who isn’t interested, focused or can’t be seen!

I continue to be grateful to those who support me, daily help with projects and keeping me in the loop but I can trust their management whilst I do what my family needs.

I wish you all a safe week and all the best as I continue to do what I can for my business, club and projects.

Please respect my time to deal with the practicalities of loosing an important person in my life and the lives of many others.

Week 29, tough decisions but for the right reasons

Helen Sharpe News, weekly update
Going to be a while before I get to shoot properly so maybe it’ll be shirt sleeves again by then

2 weeks, 2 weeks since the person who never stopped believing in me left us. He was so interested when I talked about all of the projects my friend and I were working on, so supportive of the massive things we were aiming for by pulling different projects together to form huge plans. I sat in the living room planning things for months whilst chattering to him. Last April I spent the afternoon in meetings in my parents kitchen with solicitors and the national governing body and my friend. At the end of that day so much was ready to go.

When it all screeched to a holt as my friend left, dad was there, telling me I could make things work if I put my mind to it.

That Tuesday in June when I woke up with a plan and a bunch of amazing people giving me their thoughts and support dad was again so very interested. Over the coming months he would chat and ask questions about “your little business”. Proud of my aims, grassroots, inclusion, accessibility, schools and of the work I have been doing in safeguarding.

New year weekend we sat and talked of my plans, he had seen the numbers in my week 26 blog and was proud that I was achieving those aims that I had set out to. He wanted to know what I intended to do in 2023 and beyond. We knew that within days he would be gone and that I wouldn’t have his ear to chatter into about “my little business”, but my mind is full of his thoughts, opinions and ideas and as I move forward I will be able to hear him still even though he’s not there at the end of the phone.

Right now other promises I made him are my priority as I only get one chance to get these next few weeks right and so everything else is getting a short term reduced time from me. That’s still around 20-25 hours a week! I have some people who are helping me with the load and I am incredibly grateful for their support as I am exhausted.

So, lots of emails, a few meetings and the power of remote communication.

My bow is pretty much set down at the moment but I have pencilled in plans with the right people to pick it back up for outdoors.

My disability sports coach course has had to be deferred and we are yet to find out if this means that I will loose my place, I seriously hope not because it is incredibly important to me and dad was so supportive of me taking it on and what it would mean for the future.

I have some in person meetings this week in my couple of days at home, I am excited for what we are planning in regards to schools and this will see some of those things step up again and again I am grateful to the time and understanding those schools have given me in recent months whilst I put family first.

So, if you are waiting on something, odds are you will be hearing from me by the end of this week and nope, nothings stopped, it’s just not at my usual manic speed right now, but don’t worry I am assured that people have seen that kicking in this last few days.

Don’t forget I don’t sleep so you will likely see that emails are sent in the night, no I do not expect you to reply in the middle of the night 😂😂❤️🏹

Take care of you, remember I always love hearing how you are getting on and I will always bounce around my ideas to help think outside the box so don’t stop sending me those messages.

Thank you to my crazy friend for driving in the night to give me a hug and talk dad, archery and remind me I have people, even though I am not used to it or even know how to have people ❤️ and to the very many who have messaged and called and FaceTimed 😘

Week 28 – appearing on the radio!

Helen Sharpe Blog with a message, Event recap, News, weekly update
Representing the county on the local radio

Thank you to everyone who has reached out or let me move meetings and things. Sport is made up of some amazing people and this week has proven that both within my own sport and others who I collaborate with, the very best of sporting attributes have played a part in getting me through most days.

Obviously not being at home means I have not shown up in person for anything but for the things I could not delay the lessons we learned in Covid regarding virtual communication have proven priceless.

I will not bore you with details of arrangements being made but will celebrate them at later dates when things start to happen. However, thank you to Maggie, Duncan and Chris for getting on with schools and arranging things between them. It has been incredibly helpful to just have that lifted from me.

So, the only real thing to shout about was today’s radio appearance!

BBC radio Northampton had approached the local activity partnership, Northamptonshire Sports, to be linked with people in local sports to take part in the afternoon show hosted by Tim Wheeler and includes a music quiz and I was somewhat anxious about representing the sport and failing to get anything right 😱🫣 as a heavy rock / metal fan I was especially scared of getting a bunch of pop song related questions, so I chose 70’s in the hope there may me some glam rock or those quirky hits!

My aim was to promote the sport and it’s inclusivity and hopefully I didn’t embarrass the sport or the county as I was representing NCAS.

Have a listen for yourself and judge with kindness please, you can hear me from 15:44 to 15:58.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/live:bbc_radio_northampton

pretty much my radio face 😂😂😂🫣