After seeing a consultant who suggested the tablets were causing the seizures, I stopped them & discovered different ways to deal with the pain – swimming being one of them. I swam as an able bodied child but hadn’t been in a pool since I was about 14 years old & now I was in a chair, very over weight & paralysed,. Could I get back into it?

Scared, worried, concerned, fat & wheelchair bound I headed to my local baths, deep breaths, shut my eyes & try, I thought. In the ‘area for all’ part of the pool I plopped out of my chair onto the floor & bumped to the edge, I swear everyone was looking at me but goggles down in I splashed. Four lengths later I was shattered, panting & wondering how I’d ever lose the feeling of a sack of potatoes on my back & bum. Shoulders aching I got out wondering if I would ever be able to do it again. What was stopping me doing it again, I asked myself only to go back the next day. Six lengths the next day.

In under a year I’m down five stone & now swimming between 5-20k a day, seven days a week, in the fast lane! No I’m not as fast as everyone, but I’m only using my arms, trying to balance with them to & trying desperately to drag my sorry arse up and along in the water & winning. I’ve heard every ‘stupid’ comment about me ‘not being able to swim, not being able to get in the water, not being able to keep up, etc’. You tell me I can’t, it becomes a challenge to me. I can, I will. Come on peeps, if I can do it, anyone can.