GameBlast<\/a>, a festival of sponsored gaming marathons and events that takes place in a multitude of bedrooms, lounges, village halls, colleges, studios and boardrooms, all with the aim of raising \u00a3100,000 to help us transform the lives of more gamers like Joe. It\u2019s possibly one of the biggest annual fundraisers you\u2019ve never heard of, and since 2014 it\u2019s raised nearly \u00a31 million for our work.<\/p>\nBelow: Joe playing on his PC during GameBlast20 using an adapted control setup devised by SpecialEffect.<\/em><\/p>\n![\"Seated](\"https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/joe_both.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\u201cI know what a big difference SpecialEffect make to young disabled people\u2019s lives,\u201d said Joe last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone\u2019s GameBlast challenge will help SpecialEffect find new ways for people with disabilities to play \u2013 the expertise, assessments, equipment and lifelong support that brings joy, self-confidence and a degree of independence into the lives of hundreds of people. It\u2019s life-changing, and my way of giving something back.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn 2020 SpecialEffect managed to find a solution for me to play my PlayStation again for the first time in over 11 years. Luckily for me that was the time I was shielding so it gave me something to do during that time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cIt’s life-changing, and my way of giving something back.\u201d Joe, a young man with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, powered through a 12 hour gaming challenge back in February for GameBlast20 – and we’re delighted that he’s back again for the\u00a0GameBlast21 weekend.nAlthough he can’t use a standard games controller or keyboard, he can still enjoy the excitement and inclusion of video games because of a customised tech setup put together by the charity SpecialEffect.nJoe’s one of hundreds of video gamers across the UK and beyond who are once again uniting to level the playing field for gamers with disabilities and you can support him here.nGameBlast is a festival of sponsored gaming marathons and events that takes place in a multitude of bedrooms, lounges, village halls, colleges, studios and boardrooms, all with the aim of raising \u00a3100,000 to help us transform the lives of more gamers like Joe.nIt’s possibly one of the biggest annual fundraisers you’ve never heard of, and since 2014 it’s raised nearly \u00a31 million.nBelow: Joe playing on his PC during GameBlast20 using an adapted control setup devised by SpecialEffect. \u201cI know what a big difference SpecialEffect make to young disabled people\u2019s lives,\u201d said Joe last year.n\u201cEveryone\u2019s GameBlast challenge will help SpecialEffect find new ways for people with disabilities to play \u2013 the expertise, assessments, equipment and lifelong support that brings joy, self-confidence and a degree of independence into the lives of hundreds of people. It’s life-changing, and my way of giving something back.\u201dnWe’re so grateful to Joe for taking up the challenge yet again for the next GameBlast: “In 2020 SpecialEffect managed to find a solution for me to play my PlayStation again for the first time in over 11 years,” he wrote recently. “Luckily for me that was the time I was shielding so it gave me something to do during that time.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s the best excuse to game ever,\u201d said Tom Donegan, the charity\u2019s Events Organiser. \u201cGameBlast is an opportunity for people to do what they love best and level the playing field for people of all ages with a huge range of physical disabilities at the same time.\u201d More details of GameBlast21 can be found at https:\/\/www.gameblast.org.uk and you can keep up with the action at https:\/\/twitter.com\/gameblast<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3098,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Joe's back for GameBlast21 - SpecialEffect<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/news\/joes-back-for-gameblast21\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Joe's back for GameBlast21 - SpecialEffect\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cIt’s life-changing, and my way of giving something back.\u201d Joe, a young man with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, powered through a 12 hour gaming challenge back in February for GameBlast20 – and we’re delighted that he’s back again for the\u00a0GameBlast21 weekend.nAlthough he can’t use a standard games controller or keyboard, he can still enjoy the excitement and inclusion of video games because of a customised tech setup put together by the charity SpecialEffect.nJoe’s one of hundreds of video gamers across the UK and beyond who are once again uniting to level the playing field for gamers with disabilities and you can support him here.nGameBlast is a festival of sponsored gaming marathons and events that takes place in a multitude of bedrooms, lounges, village halls, colleges, studios and boardrooms, all with the aim of raising \u00a3100,000 to help us transform the lives of more gamers like Joe.nIt’s possibly one of the biggest annual fundraisers you’ve never heard of, and since 2014 it’s raised nearly \u00a31 million.nBelow: Joe playing on his PC during GameBlast20 using an adapted control setup devised by SpecialEffect. \u201cI know what a big difference SpecialEffect make to young disabled people\u2019s lives,\u201d said Joe last year.n\u201cEveryone\u2019s GameBlast challenge will help SpecialEffect find new ways for people with disabilities to play \u2013 the expertise, assessments, equipment and lifelong support that brings joy, self-confidence and a degree of independence into the lives of hundreds of people. It’s life-changing, and my way of giving something back.\u201dnWe’re so grateful to Joe for taking up the challenge yet again for the next GameBlast: “In 2020 SpecialEffect managed to find a solution for me to play my PlayStation again for the first time in over 11 years,” he wrote recently. “Luckily for me that was the time I was shielding so it gave me something to do during that time.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s the best excuse to game ever,\u201d said Tom Donegan, the charity\u2019s Events Organiser. \u201cGameBlast is an opportunity for people to do what they love best and level the playing field for people of all ages with a huge range of physical disabilities at the same time.\u201d More details of GameBlast21 can be found at https:\/\/www.gameblast.org.uk and you can keep up with the action at https:\/\/twitter.com\/gameblast\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/news\/joes-back-for-gameblast21\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"SpecialEffect\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SpecialEffectCharity\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-11-27T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-10-21T09:24:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/joe_both.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"593\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark Saville\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@specialeffect\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@specialeffect\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mark Saville\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/news\/joes-back-for-gameblast21\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/news\/joes-back-for-gameblast21\",\"name\":\"Joe's back for GameBlast21 - SpecialEffect\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/news\/joes-back-for-gameblast21#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/news\/joes-back-for-gameblast21#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/joe_both.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-11-27T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-10-21T09:24:54+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/b7dd8712c0d480c82cb3cae2e0b5f79d\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/news\/joes-back-for-gameblast21#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/news\/joes-back-for-gameblast21\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/news\/joes-back-for-gameblast21#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/joe_both.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/joe_both.jpeg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":593,\"caption\":\"Seated man playing games\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/news\/joes-back-for-gameblast21#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Joe’s back for GameBlast21\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/\",\"name\":\"SpecialEffect\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/b7dd8712c0d480c82cb3cae2e0b5f79d\",\"name\":\"Mark Saville\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bab0786552dd506dcb39545206ce726f97e78cf79c7eb47bfbfa72da4f15fd0c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bab0786552dd506dcb39545206ce726f97e78cf79c7eb47bfbfa72da4f15fd0c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Mark Saville\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Joe's back for GameBlast21 - SpecialEffect","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/news\/joes-back-for-gameblast21","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Joe's back for GameBlast21 - SpecialEffect","og_description":"\u201cIt’s life-changing, and my way of giving something back.\u201d Joe, a young man with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, powered through a 12 hour gaming challenge back in February for GameBlast20 – and we’re delighted that he’s back again for the\u00a0GameBlast21 weekend.nAlthough he can’t use a standard games controller or keyboard, he can still enjoy the excitement and inclusion of video games because of a customised tech setup put together by the charity SpecialEffect.nJoe’s one of hundreds of video gamers across the UK and beyond who are once again uniting to level the playing field for gamers with disabilities and you can support him here.nGameBlast is a festival of sponsored gaming marathons and events that takes place in a multitude of bedrooms, lounges, village halls, colleges, studios and boardrooms, all with the aim of raising \u00a3100,000 to help us transform the lives of more gamers like Joe.nIt’s possibly one of the biggest annual fundraisers you’ve never heard of, and since 2014 it’s raised nearly \u00a31 million.nBelow: Joe playing on his PC during GameBlast20 using an adapted control setup devised by SpecialEffect. \u201cI know what a big difference SpecialEffect make to young disabled people\u2019s lives,\u201d said Joe last year.n\u201cEveryone\u2019s GameBlast challenge will help SpecialEffect find new ways for people with disabilities to play \u2013 the expertise, assessments, equipment and lifelong support that brings joy, self-confidence and a degree of independence into the lives of hundreds of people. It’s life-changing, and my way of giving something back.\u201dnWe’re so grateful to Joe for taking up the challenge yet again for the next GameBlast: “In 2020 SpecialEffect managed to find a solution for me to play my PlayStation again for the first time in over 11 years,” he wrote recently. “Luckily for me that was the time I was shielding so it gave me something to do during that time.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s the best excuse to game ever,\u201d said Tom Donegan, the charity\u2019s Events Organiser. \u201cGameBlast is an opportunity for people to do what they love best and level the playing field for people of all ages with a huge range of physical disabilities at the same time.\u201d More details of GameBlast21 can be found at https:\/\/www.gameblast.org.uk and you can keep up with the action at https:\/\/twitter.com\/gameblast","og_url":"https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/news\/joes-back-for-gameblast21","og_site_name":"SpecialEffect","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SpecialEffectCharity","article_published_time":"2020-11-27T00:00:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-10-21T09:24:54+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":593,"url":"https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/joe_both.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Mark Saville","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@specialeffect","twitter_site":"@specialeffect","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Mark Saville","Estimated reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/news\/joes-back-for-gameblast21","url":"https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/news\/joes-back-for-gameblast21","name":"Joe's back for GameBlast21 - SpecialEffect","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/news\/joes-back-for-gameblast21#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/news\/joes-back-for-gameblast21#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/joe_both.jpeg","datePublished":"2020-11-27T00:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2021-10-21T09:24:54+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/b7dd8712c0d480c82cb3cae2e0b5f79d"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/news\/joes-back-for-gameblast21#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/news\/joes-back-for-gameblast21"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/news\/joes-back-for-gameblast21#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/joe_both.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/joe_both.jpeg","width":1000,"height":593,"caption":"Seated man playing games"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/news\/joes-back-for-gameblast21#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Joe’s back for GameBlast21"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/","name":"SpecialEffect","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/b7dd8712c0d480c82cb3cae2e0b5f79d","name":"Mark Saville","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bab0786552dd506dcb39545206ce726f97e78cf79c7eb47bfbfa72da4f15fd0c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bab0786552dd506dcb39545206ce726f97e78cf79c7eb47bfbfa72da4f15fd0c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Mark Saville"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2410"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2410\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3100,"href":"https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2410\/revisions\/3100"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}