IT HAS been a couple of weeks to savour for members of Warwick, Leamington & Wellesbourne TKD who have enjoyed impressive grading successes.
Eight of the club’s junior black belts headed to Stratford for their first star grading and all passed with flying colours before three more students travelled to Bristol on Saturday for their black belt gradings in a Tae Kwon-Do Association of Great Britain event which 600 martial artists attended.
Club instructor Cassie Oury said: “They all made me so proud! They have all been training so hard, showing real determination, and I couldn’t be prouder.”
MEANWHILE, eight-year-old Warwick, Leamington & Wellesbourne TKD member Chloe Dixon is celebrating after being crowned the Pride of Coventry and Warwickshire Child of Courage.
Chloe was born with myelomeningocele – the most serious form of spina bifida – and had a tumour on her spine preventing her right foot and leg from developing at the same rate as the left one.
Her mother Nicola was told Chloe would never be able to walk but through sheer determination she proved everyone wrong and took her first steps at 15 months old.
Recalling the moment her daughter began to walk, Nicola said: “It was amazing. Chloe gets told ‘you might not be able to do that’ but she just soldiers on.
“She does not stop, she swims, bike rides, she does everything a normal child would do, nothing would stop her.”
At just four years old, the Warwick schoolgirl underwent spinal surgery to treat her spina bifida and scoliosis which is a curvature of the spine.
Then in September last year, aged seven, she had metal rods and screws put in her back. However, this amazing young girl has continued to shine and is a worthy winner of the award.
