The Gravesend Dynamite Wheelchair Rugby League club is ten years old this month and has already helped players achieve their dreams.

Jack Linden, from Gravesend, was one of the first players to join and he believes founder Jason Owen deserves a medal for the time and effort he’s put in.

More: “I didn’t expect it to make such a difference.”

“Gravesend gave me a new lease of life,” said the 27-year-old, who is on the verge of an international call-up.

“I love playing the sport, when I don’t play I am a nightmare, I just want to play! That is the joy that Jason has given me from starting up a club.

“If anyone deserves a medal it is him, the amount of time he has committed to it, the amount of people who have been inspired by getting involved, the man just deserves a medal.”

Linden walks with a severe limp. Doctors said he might never walk again after having a large part of one of his hips removed following cancer treatment at the age of 11.

Six months in a wheelchair as a kid meant he had an advantage when he got a chance encounter to play the sport while at college. Watching on was Mr Owen, who had just started a club in Gravesend.

The club had just four chairs, eight people and one ball during their very first session, a decade ago.

Linden took up the offer and played.

He recalled: “Jason asked me to play for a new team. I have Asperger’s and I had to think about it but I went and I never turned back. He put a lot of faith in me.

“The Gravesend team has given me focus, after my cancer I wasn’t allowed to play sport, I was told I wouldn’t walk again. I am walking around but it is a stress relief for me.

“Jason has done so much for so many people who have come to Gravesend, given people another lease of life, some people I have played with are in chairs anyway and so they have no other sport to play for, Jason gets the best out of everyone.”

Linden excelled with Gravesend Dynamite and now plays dual registration with Super League side London Roosters, in the same team as the Kent club’s founder.

In ten years, the club has gone from strength to strength.

Now, besides their own chairs, they also loan free sets of chairs to local schools, currently Copperfield Academy and Tymberwood Academy, for them to develop inclusive sports.

The club has over 60 playing members, more than any other club in the country. They’ve also delivered taster sessions to over 4,000 young people in schools and to local youth groups.

A total of 110 people have put on the Gravesend Dynamite shirt in competitive matches.

“Without Jason I probably wouldn’t play any sport,” added Linden. “This is the one sport I have stuck to because of all the faith Jason has put in me.

“I am playing at the top level and that’s all down to Jason because he encourages me to go and play.

“People were asking me to play Super League and I didn’t know whether to do it, he told me to do it, he said I was good enough and he’d wanted it for years. He has a lot of faith in me and I am quite proud he has that faith in me. It is an honour to have someone put that much faith in you.

“When I started I had been in a chair but hadn’t played the sport. I was dead set against it at first but when I started playing I haven’t turned back.”

Ken Maloney, from Higham, is another of the players who started out in 2013.

Sport was put on the backburner for him when he started a family but ended up trying out wheelchair rugby having first gone along to watch his son play. He ended up playing for Ireland in the 2022 World Cup.

“It took 54 years for my dream to come true!” he said.

“I never thought it would be rugby league, I thought it would have been soccer, but I was a very proud man about that. I represented my country at a World Cup and I will never forget that.”

Wheelchair rugby league is all-inclusive. Gender, age and disabilities are levelled out on the court. Maloney got to play alongside his teenage son while in his 50s.

He’s now coaching the club’s development players.

“The sport brought the competitive edge back out of me,” he said.

“The club means a lot. Jason did great work getting it going and for me it gets me away from the stresses of normal life - forget about what’s going on and concentrate on what’s going on the court. It’s my stress relief!

“I love coaching and seeing someone from the start and developing. To see them smile when they compete, I have father and son training, I have two brothers, one who is disabled and another who isn’t.”

Gravesend have four players that started back in 2013 that are still playing now and have had over ten players play international wheelchair rugby league.

The club’s going strong, new players are always welcome, and for people like Linden, it’s changed their lives.

He said: “I’ve been told I could be included in the England squad by the end of the year and I wouldn’t be doing that without Jason. I wouldn’t have got anywhere near it!”

If you’re interested in joining, email wheelchair.rugby@yahoo.co.uk for more details.