Maisie:
Women's Tackle Football
Berkshire, UK
"A new set of pads goes a long way in not only helping me but also helping ensure my women’s team has enough kit for everyone to play football & enjoy the sport.
It also means I can use the money I would’ve put towards pads to purchase the proper knee supports I need to play the game safely for as long as possible!"
Keep Maisie in the Game: Her Story, in Her Words
"I started playing at university as part of a mixed society, as I knew I wanted to play a competitive sport. AF gave me the opportunity to learn from coaches & join a big football family. After five years of coaching at my university, where I still coach, I rejoined a women’s team outside and started playing. Last year we got to a national final.
My favourite moment of my playing career was when I scored my first touchdown for the Cheetahs on my first snap of the 2024 season. It made me truly believe football was something I could excel at, and the support from my teammates was incredible. Football is the only sport I’ve found where everything I do matters, even when I don’t have the ball.
As a player with a long-term chronic disability (chronic pain), sometimes I struggle with my mental expectations of myself and the physical output. I also am studying for a PhD, so balancing the time for playing and coaching football is very difficult. However, football is always something I go back to, my happy place, where I relax from everything else.
Football has helped me to trust my teammates more and to realise I can’t carry every burden on myself. When I started playing, I would blame myself for every mistake, and my teammates had to pick me back up. I’ve taken this into my academia efforts so that I know things don’t have to be perfect."
