From an early age, Sacha Bowman dreamed of pulling on an England shirt and playing for her country. She drew inspiration from Lionesses like Alex Scott and Karen Carney, and hoped to follow in their footsteps.
Growing up in Lancashire, football gave Sacha strength and self-confidence. She had been born with Holt oram syndrome, a rare hand and heart condition which meant she was born without radius bones in her forearm. As a result, her upper limbs never fully developed and instead ‘curved’ inward slightly; with Sacha’s left arm significantly shorter than her right.
However, the youngster refused to let it impact her love of football. Instead, she let her feet do the talking on the pitch.
‘I’d loved the game growing up’, Sacha, now 23, tells Metro. ‘We lived on a closed street with terraced houses and lots of families. I’d come home from school and go outside to play football with the neighbourhood kids. When I played football nobody cared about my disability. I didn’t need my hands. I was good, and that was all that mattered.’
As she became a teenager, without any stories of disabled footballers on the television or in the news to inspire her, Sacha’s dream of becoming a Lioness slowly began to fade. Prior to 2018 her favorite club, Manchester United, didn’t even have a proper women’s side she could aspire to join. Demoralised, Sacha made the decision to hang up her football boots when she was 14.
‘I had no one like me I could look up to,’ she reflects. ‘I thought I couldn’t be disabled and play for England, so I stopped playing football.’
But then, in 2020, she got her chance.
By then, Sacha had begun a degree in sport marketing and management at Manchester Metropolitan University. Growing in confidence, she reached out to Manchester City after hearing they had a disabled team – and while she didn’t join the side at that point, the interaction led to a far bigger opportunity and Sacha was offered the chance to become a Lioness in 2023.
‘It was last October I got the news’ Sacha smiles. ‘I got a message to say the England team was looking for women to play amputee football and I was asked “are you interested?” I said, “yes – of course!”’
It took a while for the news to sink in for Sacha and her family after she got the call-up.
She adds: ‘My family didn’t believe me at first, they thought I was joking. They were like “really” and I had to say “trust me, this is real.”
‘But now they’re all just so proud of me. They know that all I’ve wanted to do since I was little was play for England. So we just all can’t believe I finally have that chance.
‘I went to meet some of the team in November and that was really exciting. Losing a leg or an arm is a really difficult situation to be in and if you have a sport to lift you up, that means so much.’
Sacha plays in goal due to her condition [outfield players in amputee football are required to be either amputated below the knee or have a limb difference, while goalkeepers must have amputation or limb difference in their arms) a position she is still getting used to.
In November this year, the 23-year-old and her England Women Amputee Football (EAFA) teammates will be put to the test, when they travel to Columbia to take part in the very first Women’s Amputee Football World Cup.
The players, coaches and staff – all volunteers – have sponsorship to get there and funding for kit, but very little financial support otherwise. Sacha and her teammates have to pay out of their own pocket for football boots, goalkeeper gloves, shin pads and travel to training sessions. She has launched a fundraiser to help cover the costs.
So, how does Sacha think her pack of Lionesses will fare in the World Cup?
‘We’re going to bring it home’, she replies firmly.
Determined to raise her voice in a bid to raise awareness of amputee football and her work within the sport industry, Sacha is part of the #WeSeeYouNetwork campaign, run by Three UK and Chelsea FC, which aims to shine a light on the often still-hidden achievements of women in football.
After being nominated for the campaign by her friend Rishyaa, she found herself whisked down from Manchester to London, where Sacha saw Chelsea beat Arsenal 3-1 at Stamford Bridge, enjoyed her own training session at the Blues’ Cobham Training Centre and offered the chance to meet one of her role models.
‘Karen Carney came to do a talk and Q&A session with us, it was fantastic’, Sacha remembers. ‘I asked her, “how do you go about your journey when you’re not being recognised?” Karen didn’t get the recognition she deserved when she was playing. She and other England teammates had to fight for pay, they had to fundraise to get buses to matches and things. That’s like us on the amputee team.
‘The players, staff and coaches don’t get paid, we give our free time to play for England. But we’re donating our time to inspire others. We want to grow the team and see a women’s amputee league in Europe one day.
‘When I asked Karen my question, she told me to focus on my own journey and keep motivated. She said “as long as you have football, that’s all that matters. Keep going.” That answer really inspired me.’
After she graduated from the Manchester Metropolitan University in 2023, Sacha became a coach at Hale United in the town of Altrincham.
She’s earned a UEFA C football licence and will soon go for the next level up, UEFA B. She dreams of coaching a men’s Premier League team one day, a feat never achieved by a woman before.
For now, Sacha manages young players and also runs her club’s social media accounts. She takes pride in inspiring the next generation of footballers – and showing them it’s more than okay to be different, it’s brilliant.
She adds: ‘I feel really proud to be a disabled coach and be making history. It’s warm at the moment so I am wearing a t-shirt a lot in sessions. Some kids will look at my arm and point it out, maybe saying “what’s wrong” or “what happened.” But once I explain my condition, it doesn’t matter anymore and they move on.
‘I hope they can look at me and be inspired. If one of the kids has a family member with a disability, they can look at me and what I’ve achieved and tell their relative “you can do it, you can achieve anything you want.”’
To donate to Sacha’s fundraiser, click here
Three UK’s #WeSeeYouNetwork is a national initiative founded by Three in partnership with Chelsea FC, to reward and connect a community of women of all ages and levels with once-in-a-lifetime experiences. To find out how to enter click here
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