It is with a mix of pain and pride that Nino Severino recalls the lengths his late wife, Elena Baltacha, would go to in order to look after the girls coached by her Foundation.
It has focussed on taking tennis to children from less affluent backgrounds in the Ipswich area, and she found one of them had a father with a serious drug problem. So, while still a high ranking player, she decided to visit the family one evening.
'She went to the council block where they lived and talked to them about the issues they were facing,' recalls Severino.
Nino Severino continues to work with the Elena Baltacha Foundation in his wife's memory
'She was a top British player and had a profile, especially around here.
'You wouldn't expect it from someone like that but similar happened on quite a few occasions. That's the kind of person Bal was.'
Baltacha is gone now – it is the fifth anniversary of her death at 30 from liver cancer early next month – but her legacy lives on.
Baltacha's former rival Anne Keothavong will lead Great Britain in the Fed Cup this weekend
Had things turned out differently she might have had a part to play in this weekend's Fed Cup promotion playoff match between Great Britain and Kazakhstan, having been a stalwart of the team.
But at least there will be a party of ten children attending from the Elena Baltacha Foundation she established while healthy and building a career that took her to number 49 in the world, and the top spot in the UK.
Her long-time rival, and latterly friend, Anne Keothavong, is the Captain.
Severino, a former karate champion, was Baltacha's coach and husband, the two of them marrying six weeks before she was diagnosed in early 2014.
He admits that the last five years have been extremely tough, although he has been sustained by support from the tennis community and the desire to ensure that the Foundation continues to thrive.
Severino was Baltacha's coach and the pair married six weeks before her diagnosis in 2014
In emerging from a trough of despair in the past year he also cites a close personal and professional bond he has established with Martyn Waghorn, the striker Ipswich Town sold to Derby County for £8 million, as a significant factor in his emotional recovery.
Waghorn is among the higher profile supporters of the Foundation, which was set up to provide tennis opportunities to girls from more deprived areas of Ipswich. It subsequently extended to taking in boys as well.
Since its establishment more than 10,000 children have been through its programmes, with some already making a mark on a wider scale. In one Suffolk county girls' tennis team five out of eight players have come through the Foundation.
Justice Hall is a graduate of the programme and aged 14 is on a scholarship at Culford School
One graduate, 14 year-old Justice Hall from the Nanton area of Ipswich, has represented Great Britain and is now on a full-time scholarship at Culford School.
'We try and support them on their tennis journey, whether that is just as a recreational player, a county or regional player or someone who is aiming to reach the very top, and we try to integrate it with
