FEED: Could you start by telling us your experience up until founding the Women’s Sport Trust – and how you got involved with women’s sport in the first place?
SUE ANSTISS: I came from a very active family, which meant I played sport to a pretty high level growing up. My first job actually working in sport was when I worked for Gatorade, within sports sponsorship companies where I first started. Then I launched and ran a sports PR agency for 25 years. Through communications, storytelling has always been my space in the world of sport.
I initially got involved in the Women’s Sport Trust as a founding trustee in 2012, which was probably the moment when I realised the true inequalities across sport. I think it had been building for years before that, but that was the moment when I met other women and realised they had a real passion to drive equality through sport. This was a really key point in time for me.
CHANGEMAKERS The premiere of Game On: The Unstoppable Rise of Women’s Sport
“I GOT INVOLVED INTHEWOMEN’S SPORT TRUST IN 2012,WHICHWASTHE MOMENT I REALISED SPORT’STRUE INEQUALITIES”
FEED: What was it like to set up your own PR agency?
SUE ANSTISS: I was about 26 or 27 and working for Quaker Oats – which at the time owned Gatorade – doing sports sponsorship and marketing, up until I was made redundant. It was around 1993, and at the time redundancy wasn’t all that common. It was a real shock as a young person – I was in a lovely career doing sports marketing and sponsorship and really enjoying what I did. So then I took a risk, and set up in my back bedroom at home. Gatorade was actually one of my first clients and it all blew up from there. My colleagues at the time always said that I was so brave to go off on my own, but I didn’t really have an alternative. I thought if it did not work out, then I would just go and get another job. For ten years or so, we focused primarily on fitness – with the sector rapidly growing and brands like David Lloyd and Fitness First emerging. Then, in the last 15 years, it started to morph into grassroots for women’s sports.
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