Coach's period kits 'help keep girls in sport'

A sports coach is celebrating after providing over 100,000 sanitary kits to vulnerable girls and women.

Sam Wright, from Burnley, has worked in safeguarding and sports for over 20 years and said she saw first-hand girls losing their confidence and stepping back from sport due to their periods.

The former gymnastics and trampoline coach created the Period Coach and goes into high schools to run workshops showing students how to use sanitary products so they "feel supported".

The 39-year-old said her "period kits", which contain sanitary items and toiletries, had "massively helped to remove barriers to keep girls in sport".

Sam, who ran a gym in Burnley with her husband Darren for 15 years, said they had over 500 young people on their books.

She said following the Covid-19 pandemic, when the gym re-opened, she noticed "many of our young people had started their periods during that time away" and because they had to wear leotards "we discovered there were a lot that wanted to stop sport all together because of their periods".

"For generations, conversations around menstruation have been surrounded by discomfort, silence and stigma," she said.

"This lack of open conversation impacts confidence, well-being, and participation, contributing to wider issues such as period poverty and disengagement from sport.

"It has never been more important to change that."

She said by talking openly about periods to gymnasts and their families "barriers began to fall".

Sam, who now coaches at Hyndburn Leisure, said the "feedback from the kids" inspires her.

"There's just something about it that makes me buzz," she said.

"It's just that satisfaction knowing a girl's got a pad when she needs one.

"And just knowing girls aren't giving up sport."

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