Our Mission
To promote and protect mental fitness and well-being among athletes and people involved in sports at all levels within South-West Wales.
Promote
We promote mental fitness among athletes, coaches, support staff in the area.
Protect
We provide resources for mental health support for athletes and all those involved.
Meet the team
Over 50+ years combined experience of working in community and elite sport in the South West Wales area.
Natasha Perdue – Founder
Natasha has been involved in various sports across all levels for over 40 years. Tash competed at the international level in karate and weightlifting, winning several titles from Welsh and British Championships and competed in the 2012 Olympic games.
Tash has experience of being both an athlete and a coach, having set up and coached a grassroots karate and weight-lifting clubs. Tash recognises the implications of only focusing on her physical health in order to improve in her sporting career and believes that having awareness of her mental fitness and wellbeing would have served her better within her career, but also during transitioning from being an athlete to normal living.
Tash completed a Diploma – Advice and Guidance And volunteered within the local authority. This led her to the idea of creating a charity to provide support and guidance for all of those involved in sport within her local area.
Rebecca Wilson – Trustee
Rebecca has been involved in sports in some way or another throughout most of her life where she competed in Karate from a young age, and as such, can appreciate the positive impact that having a sense of belonging and achievement can have on a person’s well-being. Sports offered Rebecca a chance for positive engagement, achievement, discipline and positive mentoring whilst also recognising the challenges that she faced in engaging with sport and how easy it was for other life events to take away from her sporting abilities.
Rebecca currently works as a Psychologist within the NHS and is passionate about finding creative ways to support communities and local sporting clubs to promote, manage and maintain their well-being through collaborative, skills-based approaches, in the hope that those who engage or wish to engage in sport can do so with a positive mental fitness and physical fitness, regardless of their social, racial, economic or other position within life.
Stephen Mellalieu – Trustee
Stephen is a Professor in Applied Sport Psychology in the Cardiff School of Sport and Health Sciences at Cardiff Metropolitan University where he studies how individuals operate successfully within high performance sporting environments.
Stephen is a British Psychological Society Chartered Psychologist, a registered Practitioner Psychologist and Partner with the Health and Care Professions Council, and a British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences accredited Sport Scientist. He has over 25 years consultancy experience with a range of organisations, teams and individual clients in sport and other domains, working predominantly within professional rugby union for the past 10 years.
When he is not working or spending time with his family, Stephen can be found by, or in, an ocean taking part in numerous water-based pursuits, notably surfing.
Stephen Wellington – Trustee
Stephen is a retired youth worker of 30 years, Stephen studied Youth & Community Work at Wrexham University and worked for Port Talbot County Borough Council as a Curriculum Development Officer for the Youth Service.
Stephen has been practising Wado Ryu Karate for 49 years and was competing from the age of 15 and first represented Wales at the age of 18, Stephen went on to compete for Wales in many National and International events becoming the first and only welsh competitor to win World Karate Federation Bronze and Gold Medals.
After many years of competing Stephen became Welsh National Karate coach and held that position for many years. Stephen is currently the Senior Instructor for the Welsh Karate Association and the President of Karate Wales.
History of the charity
The Rocky Road Foundation was developed following Natasha Perdue’s exit from competing in weightlifting in the London 2012 Olympics. Natasha recognises that as an athlete, her main focus was performance-driven, causing her to “switch off” emotions and feelings so that she could push herself to reach her goals. Upon retiring, and whilst struggling with the transition from competing to normal living, Natasha, with no routine, structure or goal felt lost. During this time, whilst volunteering, Natasha recognised the need for more awareness and support around mental fitness within the world of sports. Natasha wanted to find a way to help people in sporting communities to have an awareness and understanding of their mental fitness as well as their physical fitness.
The Rocky Road Foundation started with this idea, the simple question of how can we help people who are also on their sporting journey. As Natasha learnt, there is no straight line to success, we all face challenges and experience ups and downs in both life and sports, and being able to understand ourselves mentally and physically will enable us to manage and cope with the strains of life a little better, whilst empowering athletes with the skills and knowledge for their sporting journey.
As such, The Rocky Road Foundation collaboratively works as a team of multi-agency professionals who all aim to support and guide those who wish to engage, participate, and compete in sports across all levels.
There is no straight
line in life or sport
line in life or sport
Our mission is to foster solid foundations and promote harmony so that, in the face of uncertain times, athletes are better equipped to navigate the challenges that lie ahead, alongside the right people.