Last year, in 2024, we caught up with Mike Gillespie, a partially sighted snooker player, whom we funded through our disability sponsorship fund, to help Mike with the expenses of representing England at international tournaments. We’re pleased to say, since we shared Mike’s story, he’s continued to play, win and thrive on the famous green baize.
Requiring emergency medical procedures is always a harrowing and stressful period. Especially when it’s regarding such a life changing aspect, such as your eyesight. But, unfortunately that’s what Mike had to endure recently, with the added stress of potentially losing his sight completely.
Fortunately, Mike has come out the other side and continues to recuperate from his operation. The silver lining of this emergency procedure has been the messages of support that Mike has been inundated with from colleagues and fellow players from the WDBS (World Disability Billiards & Snooker) community.
Understandably, while going through his recovery, Mike missed two important tournaments and has since slipped down the world rankings to 2nd place. However, we still consider this to be a remarkable achievement and are proud to support Mike in his endeavours to regain the top spot.
For his recovery, Mike was looking forward to attending the final two tournaments of the season. Belgium in March and Hull in May, where he hoped to get some valuable cue time and practice again the world’s best players. However, at short notice the WDBS slipped in a new tournament last February to be played in Thailand!
Mike tells us: “This was unexpected in the current format, but as disabled snooker is trying to grow, these changes can happen. So, you have to try and roll with it, when it does”.
Despite the short notice, this was a remarkable opportunity for not just Mike, but all the WDBS players. It would provide the chance to play against new competitors from countries just starting out on their journey, like Pakistan, China and Thailand, to name a few. Opening up the sport to new areas and new players, who might have given up on the chance of playing a sport again. So, Mike was keen to play and represent the UK to the best of his abilities. And play he did. While some areas like transport in Thailand, were covered by WDBS, the vast majority of expenses were not, including the flights and accommodation. So, once again, CSSC stepped in to help Mike re-establish himself as a competitive player on the world scene.
Even though Mike was still recovering from major eye surgery, he managed to make the semi-final, winning a bronze medal, causing both the finalists on their route to the final some anxiety, so they didn’t have it all their own way.
Mike is rightly proud of his accomplishment, especially at such an early stage of his recovery, and hopes to keep practicing and improving as his recuperation continues into this year and beyond.
We are excited to be a part of Mike’s journey and look forward to sharing more news of his achievements. But much more than that, we are delighted to have helped play a small part in celebrating and propelling a disability sport.
We would like to thank players of the CSSC community lottery, whose generosity and support help fund our Disability and Financial Support funds, which makes all this and more, possible.
You can play the CSSC community lottery to not only win £25,000, plus loads of other top cash prizes. And you’ll be helping CSSC members like Mike to achieve their sporting dreams.