Growing up my main sport was swimming and I competed in Lothian galas and National events at the Ponds Forge in Sheffield, however my key achievement was competing for Scotland in the World Cerebral Palsy Games at the age of 15. The games were held in Connecticut, the squad secured many medals and it was the last World CP Games to run until 2015 when the event was reinstated.
I participated in wheelchair basketball and have been a regular attender at disability sports days in Lothian, initially as a participant and latterly as an SDS volunteer. At the ripe old age of 29 I am now a regular gym goer, I swim for fitness, I follow a huge range of sports but my passion is being a member of the Tartan Army and I have travelled to Slovakia, Malta and Portugal supporting the Scottish football team.
I graduated from Stirling University in 2012 with a degree in sport and media and since 2013 I have been working on reception at Westwoods, a private gym in Edinburgh. I still volunteer with SDS and sit on their Young Persons Sports Panel and am an active member of the Lothian Disability Sport committee.
The Young Persons Sports Panel was formed from an exchange programme with BlazeSports in America. BlazeSports promotes how sport can be used as a vehicle to inclusion and I was one of a group of six disabled athletes who spent 10 days witnessing this motto in action and were tasked with bringing ideas back to the UK.
I passionately believe in this principle and I know that sport has offered and continues to offer me inclusion whether in my job or in my free time at the gym or in the pool. However I am always on the lookout for evidence of implementation; we know that the Paralympic movement is strengthening every year, however where else do we see inclusion through sport?
Let me share my thoughts on the 2018 Football World Cup as for me it was about so much more than the ‘football’’; it was a great example of the power of sport to bring people across the world together and celebrate identities and transcend prejudices, politics and disability.
Prior to the tournament there was criticism of Russia and Qatar being chosen as host countries and there was a focus on possible corruption and political interference. However as soon as the tournament started, we witnessed the power of sport at work. Locals welcomed foreigners with open arms: there was celebration and respect for individual nationalities; Mexican sombreros, the Swedish Viking hats and the Moroccan fez hats. The streets and stadiums were awash with colour.
There were key moments picked up by the media such as: Senegalese players singing in unison during the warm up routine; Japanese supporters staying behind after the game and tidying the stadium before they left; and the wonderful image of the Mexican and Colombian supporters holding aloft a man in a wheelchair so he could see and actively support his country, Morocco, in the fan park.
The BBC and Sky Sports included sign language interpreters for some of the matches and there has been a big increase in signing coverage in an extensive effort by the GAA in Ireland to make the sport of Gaelic Football more inclusive for the deaf community.
I hope this is just the start of a more inclusive sporting society which is narrowing the margins between disabled and able bodied both within sport and wider society.