Paralympics 2012: the only way is Essex for Burkina Faso

This is a story, taking in full from today's Guardian (www.guardian.co.uk) we just love it. Article by Alexandra Topping, the Guardian picture is of Gasbeogo Lassane and Kadidia Nikiema training at Brentwood school in Essex.

The following, is the article featured in today's Guardian by Alexandra Topping;

When the team arrived at Heathrow they had nowhere to go and nowhere to train, until 24-year-old Liam Conlon turned up.

When Paralympic teams arrived at Heathrow in the lead up to these Games they were normally met with flowers, smiles and helpers. But when 24-year-old Liam Conlon went to greet the five members of the Burkina Faso team, the picture was quite different. He found a forlorn group: wearing brightly-coloured national dress, they were sat on their bags surrounded by police, while tourists looked on taking photos.

The team had nowhere to go, and nowhere to train – and very little money to salvage the situation. After a payment from the government went awry, they could not take up lodging and training facilities from Kent county council.

So Conlon took the only solution available to him – he took them home to his mum and dad in Abridge, Essex, and over the following weeks found them somewhere to train, new equipment and a lot of new friends. When the team's two competitors – Lassane Gasbeogo and Kadidia Nikiema – get on their bikes to compete in the time trial at Brands Hatch it will be thanks to the huge generosity of the people they have met since stepping on to these shores on 6 August.

Conlon, who expected only to meet and greet the team before taking them to their accommodation, ended up housing the three male members in his family home for three weeks, while the two women were lodged and fed by nuns at the Grange in Brentwood.

It has been an eye-opening, and occasionally perilous, experience for him and his family. "The very first day one of the team nearly burnt the house down," he said. "He put the electric kettle on the hob and turned it on to boil water – and there really has been something along those lines every day."

Now Conlon, has been adopted as the team's attache, but often finds his charges go missing or are in the middle of a picture-taking scrum if he turns his back. "They basically cause a storm wherever they go, but they are absolutely loving it," he said.

The former Cambridge student, who starts work at PWC on next week, became involved with the team after spending two months on the government's international citizen service scheme in Burkina Faso, working at a Burkinabé NGO, Handicap-Solidaire Burkina. After his experience in the west African country he did not hesitate to go to the team's rescue.

"In Burkina Faso you have people with absolutely nothing, yet they are willing to give you everything they have got," he said. "It really changed how I thought about things, so helping them didn't in any way feel like a hardship. This is the way people should behave, it was just the right thing to do."

With nowhere to train, Brentwood school – the training site for the Olympic modern pentathlon — agreed to let the athletes use their premises for free. "We were just trying to do our bit, we just saw the need and we tried to meet it," said David Taylor, second master at Brentwood school. "They are fantastic people … they have an inspirational story for the children." It was the start of a more permanent relationship between the school and the team – with pupils and teachers organising a no uniform day to raise money, which they will continue to hold after the athletes return home.

Soon there was another problem – the team discovered that one of their handbikes didn't meet the specifications for competing in Paralympic events. Then it was the turn of Quest 88 – a company that makes and sells therapy and cycling products – to step up to the mark. It arranged for a bike to be shipped from France, selling it to the team at cost price and picking up the transportation costs themselves.

"We were just excited about the Paralympics, I suppose," said Rob Henshaw, managing director. "You get emotionally involved in finding solutions to people's disabilities so it's an extension of that, and to just be part of the Paralympics in some way is fantastic."

All of these helpers – the nuns, schoolchildren and equipment makers – will be watching as Gasbeogo competes in the men's 64km H4 road race and the H4 time trial, and African champion Nikiema takes part in the women's H4 road race over 48km and the H4 time trial over 16km.

Nikiema said she and her team owed everything to the people who had helped them. "We were so relieved and happy when Liam met us at the airport," she said. "He is like another member of our team and a great friend to Burkina Faso."

Chef de Mission Florentine Ouedraogo said the team had been overwhelmed by the help and support they had received from so many different people. "It has been a fabulous experience, that we didn't expect at all," she said. "Without this help we just wouldn't be here. If any of these people come to Burkina Faso they will be welcomed as though they were our family."