BIG names in disability sport will join forces with Bournemouth University in the coming days to help it mark Disability History Month.

The GB Paralympic football team and wheelchair tennis athlete Lucy Shuker are among guests and speakers due to visit the town in the coming days.

Disability History Month is a UK-wide initiative that runs between November 22 and December 22 this year.

BU will be running a series of events, including a talk by Paul Farmer, the Chief Executive of the charity Mind, who will be talking about changing the way we think about mental health. The talk takes place at 11.30am today on BU’s Lansdowne Campus.

There will also be a series of sport related events. Team GB’s Paralympic football team will be talking about their experiences in disability sport in an event chaired by AFC Bournemouth Chairman Jeff Mostyn which will be repeated twice on Monday December 5, at noon on Lansdowne campus and 5pm on Talbot campus.

Also on Monday, Lucy Shuker will be speaking about her experiences as a Paralympian, from 3pm on Talbot Campus, while on Wednesday December 7, Nicolina Pernheim will be talking about her experience of being a blind physiotherapy student and how she manages to juggle her academic career with her sport, competing for Sweden in the Paralympic judoka events at Rio 2016. Her talk will take place from midday.

Osman Ahmed, a lecturer in physiotherapy at Bournemouth University, was a physiotherapist for Team GB’s Paralympic football team at the Paralympic Games.

He said: "Having worked at the Paralympic games in Beijing in 2008 and this year in Rio, I’m really excited that some of the biggest names in disability football, and indeed Paralympic sport, are coming to Bournemouth.

"It will be great for BU students, BU staff, and for the general public to hear more about the Paralympians’ experiences of playing at these events and hopefully give them more understanding of disability as a whole. If the players can inspire local individuals to participate in disability sport then that would be fantastic too."

All Disability History Month events are free to attend by all members of the public, with tickets available from eventbrite.co.uk/o/disabilty-history-month-2016-12106132853