Skip to main content

NI TEEN JUMPS FOR JOY AT INCLUSION IN SPECIAL IMAGE

27th January 2016

Urban free runner Shattner K. Joy has leapt into a special image commissioned to celebrate the life-changing difference of National Lottery funding.

The parkour specialist, from Carrickfergus, appears in a giant piece of art which depicts more than 150 people from 50 Lottery-funded projects across the UK.

This month the National Lottery is celebrating its 21st anniversary and the collage will be exhibited next week at the Giant’s Causeway which also features on the display.

The Giant’s Causeway Visitor Centre received £3 million of National Lottery funding in 2008.

While Shattner is a member of the UK-wide charity Fixers who help give young people a voice in order to shape their future.

The 19-year-old and a group of fellow Fixers made a film to promote the positive side of free running or parkour. He demonstrated his ability with fellow free runner Athan Pathayatou as they vaulted from the Churchill Tank in Carrickfergus, which was recently restored with National Lottery cash.

Shattner said: “It was a great honour to be asked to appear in this image.

“Thanks to the National Lottery and the Fixers charity, I have been able to become involved in a campaign to highlight a pastime of which I am extremely passionate.

“Without the support of Lottery players, our project would not have been able to get off the ground, quite literally!”

Jackie O’Sullivan, from the National Lottery, added: “It’s no easy task attempting to capture the vast scale of National Lottery funding over the past 21 years – but we have had a bash.

“National Lottery players have raised more than £1 billion for people, project and places in Northern Ireland.

“From the stones of the world famous Giant’s Causeway to the streets of towns and villages, National Lottery support has made a life-changing difference to so many in Northern Ireland.

“We are very excited to take the art piece on a tour of incredible Lottery-funded projects across the UK, including the Giant’s Causeway Visitor Centre. Hopefully the art work will inspire the public to apply for Lottery funding.”

Ends

Notes to editors

Notes to Editors

National Lottery players have raised more than £34 billion for arts, education, environment, health, heritage, sport and voluntary projects across the UK since 1994. To find out more about National Lottery funded projects and how to access funding visit www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk

To date, more than 17,700 Fixers from Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland have started – and are continuing – over 1,970 unique projects. Fixers is a project of the Public Service Broadcasting Trust which received National Lottery funding of £7 million in 2012. For more information visit www.fixers.org.uk/

The National Trust received £3 million of National Lottery funding for its world class visitor centre.

For further information please contact

Ruairi O’Kane on 07788 612804 or email Ruairi.o’kane@lotterygoodcauses.org.uk