I run an All- Star competitive cheerleading programme in Dublin. All-Star means that these are competitive cheerleaders, not just your pom-pom shaking and waving cheerleaders. The kids who participate learn tumbling skills, acrobatic skills, flexibility and endurance training. I want to contact as many young people in Dublin as possible get them into the sport. So I'm hoping there might be parents out there who are trying to get their children into another sport and will decide to give cheerleading a go.

I'm from Manchester originally. I was always into running and athletics. But one year there was this cheerleading summer camp happening and I got involved with it. After that I started practising seriously twice a week. My coach was Pat Hawkins, the President of UKCA, the UK Cheerleading Association. Then I got hooked on a bigger scale and when I turned 16, I worked as an assistant coach before joining the UK team and competing in the World Cheerleading Championships. I just have a passion for it. It's really easy to get into but very hard to get out of – the lifestyle is just so much fun.

I'm running my squad in Finglas since last December. I've got 75 girls registered on my teams, all at different levels. They would train primarily for competitions like the All-Ireland Cheerleading Championships, which are happening at DCU on the 24 October. It's the first of its kind in this country, so we're very excited. We need to keep the kids working towards something and practising their routines so they perform at Bohemian Football Club twice a month to show what they've learnt and to get to competition level. We've been asked to perform at basketball matches as well.

There's still a stigma attached to men being cheerleaders. We are trying to convert people in Ireland but it's not an easy task. People have to understand that males are needed because we do a lot of acrobatics. We do a lot of tumbling. We do a lot of jumping and the males are used for their strength. A male would hold a girl above their heads and she would be up there doing a stretch where her heel is touching her head.

These are skills of endurance and core strength. They're not easy. It's really serious acrobatics. People are being thrown up in the air doing back flips and you need males to try and push them up. It's hard getting through to people but I think if we keep pushing the sports side of cheerleading then we may eventually succeed. But it's going to be a long battle to get lots of males involved and it's not going to happen within the next five years.

We recently did a rough survey of how many cheerleaders there are in Ireland and we think that there are over 300 at the moment. That's a huge increase since two years ago when there was only 100. We estimate that in two years' time that number will be closer to 900.

Our job is to promote safe teaching practices as well as the sport. The coach has to be qualified. I'm very qualified. I've been a cheerleader for10 years. But there are some coaches out there who don't know what they are doing. The teams need to work at their own level but sometimes you'll get a coach who will want to get the kids to throw someone up in the air and then this is where the accidents happen. That's how somebody gets hurt. There are about five other cheerleading troupes in Dublin but there isn't any rivalry and we help each other.

If you go into cheerleading for money, forget about it. You'll get nothing. You're not in America. Passion is the drive. Cheerleading is a sport of smiles. We want everyone to be happy and just enjoy it.