England Netball is saddened to announce that last week Lucy Nicholls, a much loved member of our national staff team and Netball Family, lost her battle with cancer and passed away surrounded by loved ones.
Lucy was an inspirational part of the coaching team for four years at England Netball, firstly as a Netball Development Community Coach and then as Coaching Development Officer from July 2015.
During her time with us, Lucy spread the message of improving coaching standards as regularly as she spread joy with her infectious smile and sparkling personality, frequently bursting in to a verse of her favourite Disney song to raise a smile from colleagues across the organisation
Her creativity, innovation and passion for netball was evident in every part of her work. On court Lucy was a much loved player for Poly Netball Club in London and an inspirational Back to Netball coach who transformed activity in Islington.
Behind a desk, Lucy was the creative mind responsible for establishing social media channels, blogs and new online resources that coaches across the country are now benefiting from.
Following her diagnosis in September 2016, Lucy’s positive, kind and warm nature shone through as she embraced hair loss with colourful wigs, supported other patients through treatment and set up a blog to share her journey, even taking part in an online BBC documentary.
Lucy will be greatly missed by all who were lucky enough to have met, worked with or played alongside her. The thoughts of everybody at England Netball are with Lucy’s friends and family at this time.
Lucy’s love of learning and her passion for extending this to the Netball family. To celebrate this, we invite you to check out this video in which Lucy asks ‘What’s next on your coaching journey?’.
Further information in regards to tributes for Lucy will be shared shortly.
