Louisa took her gymnastics training as far as she could in Greece, before moving to the UK when she was 15 years old to live with her grandfather, so she could continue her training there (sadly he died last year and so now she lives with her trainer’s family).

In England she joined the Birmingham club ‘Elena’, derived from ‘Ela’ meaning ‘come on’ and ‘ena’ for ‘number one’ in the Greek language.

In October 2008 Louisa competed in her first competition in England, the grade nine final where she won Gold for ball, Gold for rope, Silver for hoop and Silver for ribbon, taking Gold overall.

In March 2009 Louisa with team-mate Emma Finley won gold medal for the British Championship duet competition with hoop. After passing flexibility testing, in June 2009 Louisa competed in the UK’s biggest competition, the British Nationals, where she achieved fifth overall and received her papers for the British team.

Louisa then went on training camps for the ensemble team and was chosen out of sixteen gymnasts to be a member of the Great Britain Rhythmic Ensemble Team. Travelling on to Portugal for their first European competition and to gain experience, as Great Britian has not had a Rhythmic Ensemble Team for about 15 years; she has since competed with her team in France, then in the European Championships in Bremen, Germany; and then in the World Championships in Moscow last October.

In addition Louisa also competed as an individual in the 2010 British Championships coming 6th overall, which having only had the opportunity of one month’s pre-competition training was considered a good result.

Thousands of miles from her family home and never discouraged by the challenge ahead Louisa needs our immediate help, because she is on the brink of having to pull out due to a funding crisis. She is not a professional Gymnast. She studies full time and dedicates all her spare time to gymnastics training and competitions, so she has no available hours to work.  The Great Britain Rhythmic Ensemble Team is entirely self-funded. There is no grant funding available for Louisa or other members of the team. Her family and her trainers have been contributing everything they have to help, but it simply isn’t enough. If Louisa is to stand a chance of reaching the Olympic Games next year then she needs to raise a further 10,000.00 pounds between now and January 2012.   

Here we have a Corfu-British talent, who has been training for 14 years and accomplished so much, so please make a donation to support Louisa’s dream of reaching the Olympic Games in 2012.  It is a once in a lifetime opportunity for a young lady who against the odds, is determined to succeed. She is a wonderful example of what can be achieved when one is committed and passionate; an excellent role model to other young people.

Your donations will fund her leotards, apparatus, tracksuits, training, travel expenses and accommodation and competition fees.

Please note that the Paypal account displayed is the charity account for Louisa’s fund-raising, so all monies directly benefit Louisa; so please contribute whatever you can afford, no matter how small.

thecorfuclub.com forum is also open for people to express their views and good wishes to Louisa and she is also available for messaging and chatting with members of the network.

You can also find out more about Louisa and her team at www.elenargc.co.uk