Spotlighting our amazing Volunteers in the Netball Family this week extends beyond the court and to our brilliant NETBALLHer Champions, who make it their mission to put female health first for women and girls in local netball leagues and clubs.
Angela Bass is the NETBALLHer Champion for the South West region and has had a huge impact on the local netball community. Angela has been encouraging others and empowering clubs and leagues to find ways to support women and girls around female health topics that may affect them and their ability to take to the court.
To celebrate Volunteers Week 2025, we got to know Angela better to find out why she loves being a NETBALLHer champion!
What’s your netball story?
I wasn’t a netballer originally, but a hockey player and martial artist. I hold a 2nd Dan (rank) in Karate, which I gained at the age of 62 from the International Waldo Federation. I tried out netball at our local 50+ sports club. We all found it a bit too fast, so we slowed the game down to Walking Netball to suit everyone better. Following this, I attended an England Netball Walking Netball Host training day and then Trailblazers Walking Netball Club was formed in 2016.
After that I was lucky enough to win a place offered by Vitality to take my Level 1 Coaching, which I completed when I was 70. Once I had gained my coaching award, I was invited by Vitality to attend the 2019 Netball Nations Cup in London, which was an amazing experience. I even had the opportunity to join Tracy Neville to do some filming! Now I really enjoy spending time coaching and playing for Trailblazers Walking Netball as they are such an amazing group of ladies.
What do you love about your voluntary role as NETBALLHer Champion?
I have always been interested in female health. Especially after my own cancer diagnosis in 2021, I was keen to make people aware of the importance of taking care of your physical and mental health through all stages of your life, and to show that you can get back to sport after going through an illness.
I love chatting about health and making ladies aware of the help that they can get and hopefully pointing them in the right direction. I think it is so good now that periods, menopause and other female health topics are no longer taboo subjects, which sadly they were when I was growing up.
I think becoming a NETBALLHer Champion is great, you meet lots of new people of all ages, and even at the age of 75 I am still learning interesting and important facts about all aspects of health and well-being.
How important is female health education about topics like menstruation, puberty, menopause in the Netball Family?
I think that health screening programmes, vaccines and health education are so important. It is never too early to start to learn how to look after yourself and learning what is normal or not with our bodies can help lead to an early diagnosis and consequently faster treatment if there are issues. Also, things like knowing how to find a correct fitting of sports bra and shoes for sport are important issues and affect all age groups.
Loved Angela’s story? We are looking to build a network of NETBALLHer champions across the nation, who can advocate for women and girls in netball and help us create meaningful change.
If you are interested in helping us, contact us today at: [email protected]
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