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Anne Wafula Strike - ADD's Goodwill Ambassador
July 2007

Kenyan born, British paralympian, Anne Wafula Strike became ADD’s first goodwill ambassador in 2006.

Anne said: "I'm more than privileged, it's an honour and I feel humbled to be the first goodwill ambassador for ADD”. 

Isaac added “Anne is an inspiring role model to hundreds of thousands of disabled people as well as many other sports men and women.  She has surmounted incredible odds to get where she is in life and has achieved a lot as an athlete and paralympian”.

Anne is delighted to be able to use her position as a sports personality to attract media attention to ADD's work and to promote disability as a human rights issue.

Anne was born and educated in Kenya, and was working as a lecturer at the Machakos Technical Training Institute when she met her British husband who was working with VSO.  They married and moved to the UK in 2000. 

After the birth of their son in 2001, Anne took up wheelchair racing to get fit.  In 2004 Anne became Kenya's first wheelchair racer to compete at the Paralympic Games at Athens.  In 2006 Anne became a British citizen and made her debut for Great Britain at the 2006 Visa Paralympic World Cup.

Anne’s next professional goal is to represent Great Britain at the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games and is currently training 60 miles a week on the road, track training and at the gym twice a week.

"I've tried so hard not to let my disability get in my way, I just get on with life. Just because I use a wheelchair it doesn't mean my life ends here."

Away from athletics, Anne has a successful modelling career which has included the: Leonard Cheshire Volunteer Campaign; Learn Direct advertising campaign; National Children’s Fund campaign; Disability Rights Commission ’DIS’ campaign; and Remploy.

Another side to Anne is her personal commitment to helping other people, prevalent throughout her career having been a student counsellor, notably around HIV/AIDS (1994 – 2000), chairperson of the Machakos Branch of the Association for the Physically Handicapped of Kenya (1997 – 2000) and in 2003 giving a motivational talk to young women with social problems in Harlow.