Reds in the Community are delighted to announce that Ryan Hedges has agreed to continue as our Health Ambassador for the 2018/19 season!

Ryan went above and beyond in his support of Reds in the Community’s health projects last year, giving up countless hours of his time including attending evening sessions.

Alongside this, he still maintained his commitment to other player visits with RITC, including meeting children at schools and at our Oakwell Soccer Camps.

His unrivalled enthusiasm for promoting the work of projects such as Fit Reds made a huge difference both to participants and staff running the programme.

Ryan’s commitment and massive contribution to the local community also saw him end the season by being recognised as our PFA Community Champion of the year!

Ryan is looking forward to supporting the work of Reds in the Community again this season.

He said: “I’m very pleased. Obviously it’s nice to give back to the community and show what Barnsley in the community are doing. It’s always nice to receive an award at the end of the season. The job that we’re in is very special. When we can give something back we try to. Dropping into a few of the sessions to see the hard work and everything that was going on was really good and hopefully I can do that again this year.  We can take it step by step and keep moving forward. Hopefully we can keep growing the health organisation within Barnsley.”

Sean Margison, who ran a number of Fit Reds sessions last year in his previous role, recently joined Reds in the Community as a Health Officer.

Having been given an insight into Ryan’s influence, Sean is looking forward to working with the 23-year-old and spoke about his plans moving forward.

He said: “It’s fantastic. I delivered the session last year when Ryan came down. He couldn’t give up more of his time, we were basically telling him ‘it’s time to go home and you don’t have to stop for the whole thing.’ For him to achieve and get an award for his hard work last year was great. It’s great for the participants at Fit Reds to see the players come along and give their time up. It makes them feel part of the Club and part of the community. Hopefully when people realise he’s on board again, that should help numbers for when we re-launch Fit Reds in the new year.

“We’re looking to get Fit Reds up and running again when we get to mid-January. We’re looking to get the Fit Reds Vets more sustainable. We’re looking to set up an indoor cycling group and a walking group – they’re the projects in the near future.”

For more information on Fit Reds or other RITC health initiatives, please contact [email protected] or ring 01226 211333.