IT was an interesting time for me opening up the laptop to see what exciting e-mails I had received over Christmas and New Year, and I wasn’t disappointed. I had received e-mails from US, Italy, Wales and England; the depth, breadth of the reach of social media is quite amazing.

The first e-mail was notification of a nomination for an award from Excellent Yummy Mummy in the category of ‘Special Recognition Award’. Checking out their website, I am named alongside Funke Koleosho, who is a Gourmand award winning (Nigerian) cookbook author as well as the creator of a cooking App named Cook! Nigerian. The other nominee is Diana Osagie BSC (hons) MA NPQH PQSI ILM5, a former head teacher from London and now a mentor to her previous colleagues, in the field of leadership.

The next e-mail received was a request for a radio interview from WISP.com who are based in Washington and who, according to their twitter info, are the world’s largest podcast network for women’s sport with a global audience of 1.5 million.

Their main presenter is Chris Stafford who is President & CEO of WiSP Sports Inc. which was formed in 2015. Chris is a veteran sports broadcaster and journalist with more than 40 years experience covering international sports - and has reported at Olympic Games, World and European Championships and World Cups, so good to see this expertise being utilised to continue supporting women in sport.

Then there was a request for an interview from Nicola Antonio Gasparyan who works in the marketing department at Calico Feminine Italian (CFI). She advises me the CFI is the biggest media in Italy covering women’s football, with over 1.5 million views on our website in the last two years. Another opportunity to spread the word of Scottish Women in Sport.

I believe a lot of this interest has stemmed from #GirlsDoSport - our project with UWS which has been shared on social media by so many athletes, sports and supporters of Scottish Women in Sport. We are now getting to the end of the project and have only three sports left, squash, gymnastics and hockey. Up next, today, it is the turn of squash, which is becoming more and more popular every year, with participation numbers on the increase.

It was wonderful having Lisa Aitken, one of Scotland’s top female players, in the studio, to talk about the highs and lows she has experienced through squash. As well as being interviewed in the studio, Lisa was also interviewed by our young Everactiv Ambassador, who has asked the same question to all of the athletes - ‘what is the hardest thing that you have had to deal with in sport’?

The answer from all, to a woman, was recovering from injury.

Lisa would know more about this than most as in August 2014, whilst competing at an event in Malaysia, she was diagnosed with dengue fever, a mosquito-borne tropical disease which kept her out of squash for around six months.

I am delighted to say she is fit and well and looking forward to challenging in 2018, with steely determination coursing through her bones.

That leads nicely onto Andy Murray and his recent surgery. Again the strength and determination that you get from listening to press clips of Andy talking about his recovery leaves you in no doubt that he will succeed and get back to challenging for top spot.

At this moment in time Andy’s motivation is that he is fit and well enough to play in order that his eldest daughter Sophia can understand what it is he does for a living. I think Andy’s legacy for his daughters is far more than just his playing career, as has been proven time and time again with his positive proactive attitude and comments supporting total eradication of the inequity that still prevails in many areas of sport.

The statements from Andy are always extremely warmly welcomed throughout the world by women and men alike and are so powerful that I have no doubt he has impacted positive change in many areas of sport and society in general.

So more power to his elbow and loads of good wishes for a speedy recovery back to the tennis court.