The Power of Sport

Posted 3hrs ago
by Charlotte Healey

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'It is more than a hobby, it his lifeline, when he finds a sense of control over his body'.

Our son, Owen, is a 12-year-old boy who has a strong passion for sport. Owen has always put his all into everything he does, trains hard and is always determined to be the best version of himself. He participates in multiple sports, but his passions remain with football and cricket alongside his twin brother, Patrick.

Owen plays for football for Ash Rovers under 13s and last season their team had the honour of winning a cup final on a local professional club’s pitch. In cricket, Owen plays for multiple aged cricket teams for Yeovil Cricket Club and is also part of the Somerset Cricket Pathway programme.

A new Challenge

Around the age of six/seven, Owen developed an excessive eye blink. Over time, he also developed a nose wiggle, persistent throat clearing sound, episodes of dizziness and unexplained falls to the floor. These were all dismissed as habits, dehydration and allergies by medical professionals. Things took a dramatic turn in December 2024 when Owen developed severe head and neck jolts. During the next six months things progressed quickly, and his symptoms multiplied. He experienced full body tic attacks, episodes of paralysis, seizure type episodes, a stiff legged walk, accent changes, loss of hearing and sight and even animal noises. This resulted in multiple A & E visits as well as ambulance attendances. Each time we were told that Owen was medically fit and sent home being told to wait for his pediatric appointment to come through. We had countless MRIs, EEG and blood tests which all returned as normal, leaving us with uncertainty, anxiety and lots of unanswered questions.

We had some success after Owen received some chiropractor treatment and a custom-made oral splint was made for him, which gave immediate relief for his head, neck and facial tics. But the more severe symptoms such as paralysis and speech changes persisted. In August 2025, Owen was diagnosed with Tourette syndrome and FND by an NHS pediatric Neurologist.

Sport is a lifeline

Unbelievably, through all this, Owen’s commitment to sport has not stopped. Amazingly, while playing football and cricket his tic tics and FND symptoms will stop. The focus required by the game has enabled his sport to help him be a sportsman and be himself. Sport has become Owen’s escape from his symptoms and allows him to feel like himself and stay positive.

It is more than a hobby, it his lifeline, when he finds a sense of control over his body. Which is something that has become very rare. The power of sport on his life has become so much more that his achievements but a reminder of his determination to not let his diagnosis stop him doing what he loves.

A small idea....

Owen had an idea of holding a charity cricket match to raise awareness and funds for Tourettes Action. He wanted to prove that you can still play cricket with tics and that the condition doesn’t mean that you will inappropriately swear, something that Owen doesn’t do.

We started to organise the event and were quickly blown away by the support and generosity of local businesses. We also arranged for a content creator cricket team to be our opposition.

The event was a huge success where around a 1000 people attended and £7034 was raised for Tourettes Action. We were blown away as the initial target was £500.

It was amazing to see the community come together to support the event and help raise some awareness of the conditions. 

On reflection, we can see the event highlighted the importance of being a part of something to help people with Tourette's to not feel isolated and how people will stand by you no matter what.

Tourettes Action is such a support to us as family and give us the knowledge and guidance to make an uncertain situation feel like it will be ok, and we will get through it.

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