Sheffield skater fundraising to go to Roller Derby World Cup

Team GB head coach Jonathan Emery, who has led the team for two years, said: "It is both amazing and terrifying - getting 20 skaters to the other side of the world," he says.

"It's quite a niche sport. Most big cities or towns have an adult league and it's quite a female-led sport.

"Most male-led [sports], especially football, rugby, have a women's team, whereas roller derby was born from a female league and then there's a few of them that have juniors."

Both Tom and Jonathan agree what they love about the sport is how inclusive it is.

"It's probably the most inclusive sport I know, it doesn't matter about body shape, gender, anything like that," said Jonathan.

"It's quite at the cutting edge, especially around gender and support of our transgender members."

Tom said it was his mother who introduced him to the sport.

"My mum was involved with the adult team and they wanted to put together a junior team and so they put out a couple of tasters and I went to one of them.

"I've been doing roller derby ever since," he said.

"It has an absolutely great community. If it was just a game it's already great, but with the community it also has - even if it is a small community relative to other sports – it makes it that much greater."

Click here to read article