Dame Kelly Holmes, the gold-medallist Olympic athlete, will be coming to Northampton Academy to launch a new Northamptonshire Championship Fund that will help talented children to develop their sports skills. The new fund, which will be raised mostly from private sector funding, comes as part of a wider strategy being promoted by Sally Keeble MP to ensure that Northamptonshire benefits fully from the Olympics in 2012.

Kelly Homes will also be using her visit to the specialist sports school to encourage more girls to participate in sport.

Sally Keeble said “We are delighted that a national hero is coming to Northampton and that she has decided to help raise the profile of the Northamptonshire Championship Fund. It is an exciting project and I do hope that the private sector in Northampton will want to get involved and support the fund too.”