Mo Squires

We are incredibly sad at the passing of Mo, who for so many years has been a much-loved, and remarkable member of our netball family.

Mo was not just an avid spectator and lover of all sport, but was also a fervent participant.  From rounders and cricket, to playing football for Swindon Spitfires she excelled, but the sport that brought her the most joy and that she devoted an enormous part of her life to, was netball - it was her passion. 

Mo’s contribution to the development of netball is undeniable, over the many years she was involved in Wiltshire netball she held numerous coaching, administration and committee roles at club, league and county levels and had a significant impact on the development and delivery of our sport. 

In 2017, Mo celebrated a record-breaking night at England Netball’s National Goalden Globe Awards by taking away three awards from three different categories – the most ever won by a single volunteer in one year.

She started the evening by collecting the National Long Service Award for her dedication to netball in Wiltshire over the past 40 years.  Her second accolade of the night, the Inclusion and Diversity Award, was presented for the work she did launching the Swindon Vixens – a community-based netball club for young women with learning difficulties and her hat-trick was completed with the National Rose Award - presented to a volunteer who had demonstrated an exceptional contribution to netball in the last 12 months.

One day in 2015 when she was Netball Development Officer for Swindon, she was watching walking football and thought that maybe, with very few rule modifications, it could work for netball.  In 2018, Mo was nominated by the then England Netball President, Lindsay Sartori, to receive an award from The Torch Trophy Trust for ‘her outstanding voluntary work for England Netball’ and specifically for her involvement in the development and delivery of Walking Netball’.  The Torch Trophy Trust is a charity that rewards, recognises and supports volunteers in sport and recreation and in particular aims to identify and honour sporting volunteers who ordinarily would neither gain or seek recognition for their work with sports clubs and individual athletes in their local communities - Mo to a tee.....

Mo was fondly named as the ‘founder’ of Walking Netball seeing it adopted as an official England Netball product which is now played throughout England and as far-afield as Australia and New Zealand.

Following Mo’s endometrial cancer diagnosis in 2022, she was driven to become an advocate for women's health and to tell her story and so the idea for the WCNA Women’s Health Netball Festival was hatched.  The festival combined multi-generational netball tournaments and information stands where health professionals could talk to individuals about their health concerns and offer advice.  The festival raised a total of £18,000 which was shared equally between Prospect Hospice, Macmillan Cancer Support and the GWH Brighter Futures appeal.

The Netball Festival received recognition in October 2023 at England Netball’s One Awards receiving the Special Recognition Award and in February 2024, the Community Sport & Recreation Alliance awarded WCNA the Resilience in Adversity Award, all because of Mo.

In closing, we want to pay tribute to and share our immense gratitude for a truly remarkable lady who nurtured, inspired and championed so many netballers across the county.

One of her many strengths and perhaps her greatest, was seeing potential in people.  She selflessly committed her time and energy supporting people to enjoy the game regardless of their ability, background, age or circumstance.  The legacy she’s left and foundations she laid in netball, development, leadership and friendship will be treasured for years to come.