Introducing Theo Sergiou as Our New President!

As we enter 2023, The Change Foundation is very excited to announce that we have a new president at the helm. When cricket legend Phil Tufnell stepped down from the role as our charity president after an incredible innings, we knew that we needed someone special to take his place. Given that young people are at the heart of our work, it seemed fitting that a programme graduate should fly the flag for us going forward. Theo Sergiou has been involved with the charity since he was 7 years old and was nominated for the position by his Coach Mentor, James Wischhusen.

A previous graduate of our Cricket4Change programme, Theo was born and raised in Tottenham to Greek Cypriot parents, along with his two brothers. Over the years he has overcome multiple social and health related challenges and has gone on to study Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford University, where he is currently in his second year.

I was able to catch up with Theo recently when he came home for the Christmas break. Despite revising for his January exams and living in a bustling household, he was happy to give up his evening to talk to me. Being present and giving his full attention is a quality that Theo shares effortlessly, along with an overflowing and infectious sense of humour. This first becomes apparent when he joyfully confessed that as a middle child, he’s always been able to get away with mischief and fly under the radar until he needs to be noticed.

He cheerfully admits that charisma and humour helped get him into Oxford University. After half-heartedly jotting it down as one of his university options, he ended up being invited for an interview which he subsequently aced. It was only then that he realised he had to knuckle down, so he shut off his social media and studied hard to obtain the grades he needed to get in.

However, his academic success bloomed from far more humble beginnings. Having grown up studying in a Tottenham state school, Theo was exposed to youth violence and street crime at a young age, and he is open about the way it affected his earlier years of education. He talks about how fellow students, a lot of which were and still are his close friends, would carry knives and blades into school awaiting times they were needed to assert themselves and fight rival schools who would often arrive in numbers outside his school gates after school. Theo is grateful for his experience growing up in such a community, professing that he adopted a ‘gung-ho’ approach which has since given him the confidence to defy expectations and overcome the limitations associated with special needs education whilst also adopting a fearlessness to take risks and advocate for independence.

The challenges Theo faced in school alone would be frightening for any young person. However Theo had the additional challenge of learning to live with near blindness after losing most of his sight as a child whilst undergoing chemotherapy to treat a brain tumour. Far from dampening his spirits or shutting down his options, Theo views his time spent in hospitals, and the underlying condition which put him there as something which reaffirmed the uncertainty and beauty of life and which now drives him forward.

Theo frequently expresses how he is grateful for his tumour, as he believes his health has put him in situations that required him to channel enthusiasm towards positive and effective interactions such as lobbying and campaigning. He also shares that his health protected him from fully from engaging in street crime and youth violence because having a cancer diagnosis gave him respect from all that knew him and prevented him from being affiliated with street crime groups. Having learned valuable skills in campaigning, Theo become a regional leader in the UK Youth Parliament and become the youngest person in British History to contribute into a Cabinet Meeting in 2019 campaigning on early intervention and reformation to reduce street crime and youth violence.

Looking ahead to his new role at The Change Foundation, Theo has big plans. Through the outreach of the charity, he wants to continue to improve how disabled people are integrated into sports and wider society. Drawing on his own experiences, Theo maintains that sports groups can hugely benefit from mixing able and disabled players, and an emphasis on player diversity will be central to his energies in 2023.

We greatly look forward to working together with Theo and bringing his ideas and visions to life along with the incredible suggestions of the talented young people on our programmes. With our Young People Awards already booked in for next July, our 2023 calendar already promises to be full of celebration, excitement, and new experiences.

Welcome to the team Theo, we can’t wait to explore this next chapter with you!