Paralympic athlete Simon Jackson is to help attract disabled users to the George H Carnall Leisure Centre in Manchester, which launches as an Inclusive Fitness Initiative site this month.

The partially-sighted winner of the bronze and gold medals for judo at the 2000 and 1996 Paralympics will work in the community over the next 15 months to encourage disabled people to use the centre.

His role as inclusive activator is being funded by the IFI and is part of a £28,915 grant to the centre designed to make it more accessible to disabled users.

Trafford Community Leisure Trust, which operates the centre, has invested £6,000 in the facility and a further £5,000 has come from Kellogg’s as community partner.

The funding has been used to purchase inclusive equipment for the newly-extended fitness suite; which has been rebranded as Zest Heath and Fitness.

The centre’s staff have all received disability training to give them confidence in meeting the needs of disabled users and the fitness suite staff are qualified to provide adapted physical activity programmes for disabled users.

An inclusive marketing and sports development plan has also been developed to include marketing in alternative formats – such as information leaflets in braille or on audio tape – and other inclusive sporting activities for disabled users within the borough.

The centre is currently home to the British Paralympic Judo team and already has a number of disabled members, but hopes its IFI status will attract more people said centre manager, David Williams.

“We want to include everyone in our gym and the IFI has acted as a catalyst to further complement and enhance our provision for participation in physical activity for the whole community,” he said. “We believe this holistic approach to inclusion will encourage disabled people to come and visit us and ultimately benefit from taking part in regular exercise.”