Privileged to Have Won Another Sussex Sports Awards 2022

World Club Basketball Founder – wins Sussex Sports Award Volunteer of the Year Award 2022.

Eric Douglin, founder of the World Club Basketball Tournament was crowned winner of the Sussex Sports Award Volunteer of the Year 2022, at the Sussex Sports Award ceremony last week (24/11/2022). Eric also finished runner up in the Outstanding Contribution to Sports & Physical category.



Eric was already thrilled to be nominated in 2 categories, but to make the top 3 shortlist in both, was icing on the cake.  





Background

The World Club Basketball Tournament, an annual team event for overseas and domestic senior men’s teams, was founded in 2015 to provide opportunities for players around the world to compete in international competition. 

Kidney Transplant  

Eric received a kidney from his wife Mandi in 2010, after being diagnosed with chronic kidney disease in 2005, a partnership was formed with Kidney Research UK. Eric is currently an ambassador for Kidney Research UK, which has been a dedicated charity of WCBT since its inception, to raise awareness on the need for organ donor

Stoma Surgery

As if dealing with the impact was a challenge, Eric would go on to receive lifesaving emergency surgery in January 2021 after his bowel ruptured, and he needed to have a colostomy and a stoma formed.

Eric had a long and difficult recovery after the surgery; however, he was determined to get healthy and back to raising awareness and organising the UK’s only international pro-am basketball event.

Once he was well enough to return to action, Eric went back to organising WCBT2022, to raise awareness not only for kidney awareness, but stoma awareness as well after personally becoming aware of the impact those living with a stoma face. As a result, Eric also became an ambassador for the charity Colostomy UK, in order to raise awareness for those impacted by stomas and associated conditions.



Sussex Sports Awards 

The winners attending the prestigious awards ceremony were presented with the with a trophy and certificate, with the 2 runners up from the 7 categories receiving a certificate at the event held at the Sussex Cricket Club in Hove, East Sussex.

Eric was selected as the winner in the V.O.Y category by the judges from a high calibre category of nominations across Sussex, all of which had made a major contribution to sport across the county.

WCBT2022

The 6th annual WCBT event was hosted in Hastings, East Sussex over the weekend 3rd & 4th September, and featured 10 teams from around the world including USA, Lithuania, Canada, UK and Italy.

The weekend also included a free youth coaching session hosted by one of the competing team New York Court Kings, which was attended by over 40 excited young Sussex players. This was a unique opportunity for the young players to receive coaching by overseas professional players, & then be able to watch two days of international competition in their county.

 Eric  said " The award is a fantastic achievement and wouldn’t have been possible without all of the teams, volunteers and sponsor who have supported the event, and especially my wife Mandi, who has been by my side though some difficult times. From a personal perspective I hope that I can be an inspiration to anyone who has been impacted by invisible illness, and raise awareness for charities Kidney Research UK & Colostomy UK”

Preparations are currently underway for the World Club Basketball Tournament 2023, with entries already received from teams including Hawaii, Serbia, USA, Spain and Japan.

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