Kevin, aged 58, is an internationally acclaimed athlete with a long list of achievements on his sporting CV. He’s the four-time World Discuss Champion and has represented Royal Sutton Athletic Club and Great Britain at no less than seven World Masters, three European Championships, two Commonwealth Games and at the Sydney Olympics in 2000.
He is often found at our Sutton Coldfield Community Games event breaking world records by pulling Porsche cars, provided by our sponsors Prosche Centre Sutton Coldfield, down the finishing straight of the Wyndley Leisure Centre athletics track. When he is not training for his record attempts, Kevin spends his time working with community groups and schools, encouraging people of all ages to lead an active life.
It was at school that Kevin found his passion for sport. He realised his talent for throwing the discus during a PE lesson, where he threw a discus across the school field and over the school boundaries!
It was no surprise that he went onto represent Great Britain in this discipline.
For Kevin, sport was something he could and indeed would excel at, but it was also something that he could use to feel accepted by his peers, something that would help him with the difficulties he faced during his school years.
Kevin found the academic side of school a struggle. He faced barriers in reading – letters would move around on the page, and he would find it difficult to process the written word. These difficulties led to him being bullied during his school years. Kevin. however, was determined to succeed and his academic struggles pushed him towards sport.
“I may have dyslexia… but dyslexia does not have me.”
Kevin Brown
After spending much of his trying to mask his reading difficulties, Kevin was finally diagnosed with Dyslexia at the age of 43. It was at this point that he accepted his disability and became determined to support and inspire children who may be facing the same struggles he did as a child. Earlier this year, whilst browsing the internet, Kevin came across OrCam Read, an award-winning piece of technology to support those with mild low vision or reading fatigue. OrCam Read is a handheld device with a smart camera that reads text from any printed surface or digital screen, thus taking away many reading barriers. Kevin, instantly saw the potential in this technology to support and help people with dyslexia and contacted ORCAM. He now is working in close alliance with them in supporting and promoting OrCam Read to bring it into schools to help children with dyslexia. As part of this partnership, OrCam has donated an ‘OrCam Read pen to both Kevin and a school of his choice.
Through the Community Games, Kevin was introduced to The Federation of Boldmere Schools. Boldmere School have been long standing and loyal supporters of the Community Games, and were the first school to promote the Sutton Coldfield Community Games in 2012. An OrCam Read pen will now be used as resource within the school supporting children with dyslexia. Last week Kevin visited Boldmere Junior School to meet the children that would benefit from the pen and to officially hand it over to the school.
On bringing together Kevin and Boldmere School, Dennis Kennedy, Inspire Activity CEO and Community Games founder said:
“It was a pleasure introducing Kevin to Boldmere School. Kevin is a valued and inspirational ambassador who is a constant support to the Community Games. When he asked us to help him make a link with a local primary school, we knew we could help. Boldmere School was the first primary school to promote and get behind the Sutton Coldfield Community Games when they were founded back in 2012, and have continued to be a constant support. To be able to help give something back to the Boldmere School community and in turn help Kevin continue to inspire, either through sport or this new venture, is something we are proud to do.”
We at the Inspire Activity, are so proud to have Kevin Brown as a Community Games Ambassador. He really is a true inspiration.