A paralympic gold medal winning local swimmer has been given Freedom of Middlewich at a ceremony in the town where she originally hailed from. 

Medal winning Poppy Maskill, whose swimming talent was spotted at Alsager Swimming Club, received the award Middlewich Victoria Hall.

Poppy originally from Middlewich won three golds and two silver medals at the Paris games earlier this year but her talents were spotted when she started swimming in Alsager. 

Poppy's former coach Phil Balcombe. (Photo: Phil Balcombe)

Among those delighted with Poppy's recent accolade is her former coach Phil Balcombe. 

Phil coached Poppy from mid-2015 when she was just 10 years old until March 2023 when she was 18 and already a world champion as we revealed here . Poppy trained with Alsager Swimming Club, based at Alsager Leisure Centre, for many years

Her former coach Phil previously told Nub News: "Poppy is an extremely hard worker. She probably missed fewer than five sessions in the 10 years that I was her coach.  

"I thought Poppy had the right ingredients to be a good swimmer from day one, but only after she was classified in 2018 did I start to think she would go all the way to the top.  

"Poppy is a very modest swimmer. Very few of her teammates resented her success and I think they all benefited from her being on the team. She would even turn up early and help coach the younger swimmers."

Two other people also received Freedom of the Town at the same ceremony at the weekend - Linda Boden for her many years of fundraising for SAD's and Jean Eaton for her 50 years of volunteering services.

Well done Poppy!

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