A chance meeting sees Zoe Harvey thrive with Cambridge United Community Trust visually impaired team
Zoe Harvey’s introduction to football is as obscure as you could possibly imagine.
“I went out into town with my daughter, was queuing up to get into a shop with my white stick and this man in a bobble hat approached me and said, ‘Would you be interested in playing for Cambridge United ladies’ visually impaired team?’,” she explains.
As unusual as it may have been, it is fair to say that the actions of Phil Mullen have had a profound effect on Zoe.
Sitting at the Abbey Stadium one Thursday morning, there is a real sense of the community into which Zoe and her family have been welcomed.
Not long have we been talking outside the Abbey Arms than a group that have been playing walking football arrive to have post-match refreshments, and conversation diverts to all things Cambridge United Community Trust teams.
It has become such an integral part of the Harvey family life that husband John is running the Cambridge Half Marathon on behalf of the trust, and yet it all started in such a random way.
“April 12, I know the exact date because it was the first day the shops opened in town,” says 36-year-old Zoe, about the moment when she was approached by the trust’s disability sports officer with a business card.
There is a lot to like about the way that Zoe tells the story in such a matter of fact way, but with a great deal of humour.
“Because I had a white stick and was a lady – we’re quite unique in Cambridge, there are not many of us!” she says of the reason Phil reached out.
He is not averse to trying different ways to increase participation in the disability football sessions, and on this occasion it definitely reaped rewards – with someone who was not actively considering taking up the sport.
Zoe had played hockey as a teenager, but her life began to change aged 21 when she started to lose her sight.
“You think when you don’t have good sight you can’t play sport, and having kids and a family, it meant it just wasn’t on my radar,” she explains.
“I didn’t have any visually impaired friends at that point – I now have a full range of them – and it wasn’t advertised in our local community.”
But that chance encounter with Phil sparked the curiosity.
“I didn’t know any other visually impaired people so I thought it would be good to push myself and meet other people that are the same as me,” she says.
“John walked me in, and that was the first Sunday after – that is it, I’ve been back every week since.”
It is abundantly clear just how much of an impact the involvement with the team has had on Zoe, especially restoring her confidence.
She is registered as severely sight impaired/blind, with her left eye classed as a non-seeing eye and her right as a finger-counting eye, which gives a classification of B2 with British Blind Sport.
The sight loss meant that she had to be retired through ill health from working for the NHS, and it was deemed that she could not work independently.
“I lost being able to go to work. I lost being part of a work community. I lost all of that,” she explains.
“Losing your sight and then being told you can’t go out to work, you are sort of then stuck in the house because what can you do?
“Everything you do, you do rely on your sight. When your sight is taken away from you suddenly your world stops, especially for someone like me who didn’t grow up with sight loss.”
Unlike someone without vision from birth, Zoe’s world had changed.
Things such as the school run and taking medication became very different challenges.
What is also striking is her description of being told something was no longer possible – and that football sessions with CUCT have instilled such confidence.
“Going from two people that had fairly good jobs, working, earning decent money, with our kids and then suddenly being told you can’t do that anymore, you can’t work anymore, you can’t do this anymore,” says Zoe.
“I think it is also that you can’t. A lot of people say, you can’t do that.
“Now I can, why can’t I?
“It’s making other people realise that the more you say you can’t do that, the more I can do that.”
This is when you understand just how much more there is to being part of a team than just playing football, especially in Zoe’s case.
It has opened up so many more different avenues as, together with John, they have taken on coaching the Cherry Hinton Lions Under-11s Red, the team for which their son Lucas plays.
“It fitted in well with learning a bit more about football myself,” says Zoe.
“John played football when he was younger, and I would just knock the ball about as mum, but obviously doing the coaching side of it and getting involved with the lads, I needed to step up my game.”
She adds: “I’m sure half the boys still don’t know I’ve got a visual impairment but it will show them and other teams that you can have a woman involved in sport.”
This is an area which Zoe is particularly passionate to change.
She is eager to attract more women to play visually impaired football and join the Cambridge United Community Trust sessions, while at the same time be a sporting role model to her children.
By the manner in which she discusses the subject, you glean just how important it is for her to try to change the way that football is seen as a male-dominated sport.
“It’s trying to push the female side of it, and show my kids as well,” says Zoe.
“They are all able-bodied boys and girls, but it doesn’t matter that you’re a woman, if you want to do it, you can do it.
“It doesn’t matter if you have a disability, you can do it. It’s trying to make them proud that mum is doing something.”
Zoe is not just doing ‘something’ though, she is making massive strides.
She is on the England ladies B1 (blind football) pathway trial, and has been invited back to attend specific training camps to try to be selected for the historic first England B1 ladies squad – there has never previously been a team.
In a short space of time, it is a long way from turning up to that first visually impaired training session with CUCT when the appeal was very simple.
“To get out and do something, exercise and also I have never been part of a visually impaired community,” Zoe puts it.
“I didn’t know any other visually impaired people. I was just in my own little family, and my own ‘normal’ bubble.”
She adds: “As a team we’re growing because we’re understanding what everyone’s needs are.
“I get on fantastic with all of them, and it’s opened up opportunities to meet other visually impaired people in different parts of Cambridge with other social things that are going on.”
You can understand why Zoe is so keen to encourage other women to try the visually impaired football sessions, and it feels like there was a certain degree of serendipity about that chance meeting with Phil back in the spring.
John Harvey takes on a challenge and a half for the Trust
John Harvey has been motivated by the positive impact of the Cambridge United Community Trust to run the Cambridge Half Marathon this Sunday (October 17) on their behalf.
The 33-year-old has seen how being involved and playing football with the trust’s sides has been such a huge boost to wife Zoe’s confidence.
“Before, she was quite hesitant at going to new places because it was quite scary as you don’t know the ground you’re walking on,” explains John.
“Her confidence has grown. If she had not pushed herself to go and try football after Covid just to get out and get some exercise and experience, I don’t think she would have grown as the person that she is now.”
The couple had spent time looking for hobbies that Zoe would be able to take up, but there would always be an obstacle. Most of the pastimes have a visual element, and there is an onus on individual pursuit which, with the issue of transport and having a young family, made it difficult.
“She is a lot more confident in her disability,” explains John.
“I don’t think she would be coaching the football team that we coach if she hadn’t gone to Phil’s session through the trust. That has enabled her to go on and do that.”
He describes the boost in Zoe’s confidence as being ten-fold and, with that in mind, decided to take on the challenge of the half marathon.
John has taken part in 10K Tough Mudder events in the past, but this will be his first attempt at the longer distance.
“They were screaming out for marathon runners to support the trust and I thought it was something I could do to help,” he says. “They have been so beneficial to Zoe and our little family, so it’s the least I can do. I thought I could do that to raise a few funds here and there to help out. When you are going to an environment with other people with similar conditions, it gives you more confidence. It’s a place where you can go with the trust and be yourselves.”
He added: “The trust adds extra to the sport, they enable people to communicate, make friends and not be alone.”
To sponsor John, visit justgiving.com/fundraising/cucthalfmarathon.