By elliott West
Sometimes you hear a story and you feel you just have to write about it. This happened to me yesterday when I was messaged by David Church. David wrote to me asking me if I could write a blog about him. No nothing about this snooker player, I asked him to provide some background information about him. It was at this point that I knew I had to write about him. David is a two times World Disability champion but you have to delve much deeper to find the very touching story of how this man rose to prominence. Church now 23 was born with a rare disability called Moebius Syndrome, a neurological condition that primarily affects the muscles that control facial expression and eye movement. He also suffered a road traffic accident in 2013. As a result of this accident he now suffers from depression, anxiety and social phobia, which led him to start drinking and smoking, leading to suicidal thoughts.
Thankfully his father intervened and wanted to find a way to turn this situation around. His answer was to take his son to a snooker club and so this young man fell in love with snooker. This therapy was just the tonic that Church needed and acted as great alternative to his troubles. He is still not 100 percent but told me that when he is “ at one with the game, there’s no better feeling”. As a result of this turnaround, David started playing snooker at county level for Norfolk. During one match, the referee approached him and started talking to him about World Disability Snooker and suggested that he should try and join. The rest as they say is history and he has never looked back since.
Since this influential suggestion, Church has gone from strength to strength, winning the World Disability Championship twice and has always been in the latter stages of tournaments. When he won the title in 2017, it was only 10 days after his father’s funeral. However David was determined to make his dad proud by bringing home a snooker title and making something of his life. After his father’s death, Church described to me how “his world fell apart and “still to this day, I miss him and feel the pain”.
