- Emily and Seb at London 2012
- Emily and her friend Tom with
The One Show's Alex Jones
Me and my twin
sister, Lucy were born 10 weeks prematurely, and later diagnosed with Cerebral
Palsy, after not being able to walk for quite a while when we were young. My early memories are of constantly walking
up and down the stairs at our local Children's Development Centre to try and
strengthen my legs. We had a lovely
childhood, and loved school. I don't
remember our disability ever affecting us, how we made friends, or our outlook
on life.
At 9 years old, I had an operation to improve my walking, as
it was getting so bad that my knees started to knock together and my posture
was worsening. I had Derotational Osteotomy
where my thigh bones were cut and pinned back together. My hamstrings were also lengthened. This huge procedure took quite a while to
recover from, and I lost all the muscle tone in my legs, leading me to use a
wheelchair. I have no recollection of
this change ever really bothering me; I was actually much more mobile with the
wheelchair, and I started playing wheelchair basketball locally and at county
level. I remember my wheelchair even
being quite cool when I started secondary school! Again, apart from a few issues with school
trips and risk assessments, my time at school was so enjoyable. I did well in
my GCSEs, and decided to stay on at 6th form, with the hope of attending
University.
In the summer of 2008, at the age of 16, I as given an
amazing opportunity which would change my life forever. I was nominated by my
school to go to southern Africa (Namibia, Lesotho and South Africa) with the JoLt
Charity, an incredible organisation that takes disabled or disadvantaged young
people on a literal 'Journey of a Lifetime'.
Here, I met people with similar life experiences and similar
ambitions. Together, we did things that
we'd never imagined would have been possible.
We rode elephants, went cage diving with sharks, and climbed some of the
highest sand dunes there are! I immediately got the travel bug, along with 30
life-long friends.
After JoLt, I was determined to travel some more. After my A
Levels, I went to the Sinai Desert with the Yorkshire Schools Exploring
Society, and was the first wheelchair user they'd ever taken on a trip. I was also the first wheelchair user to ever
cross the desert on camel! Whilst in the area, we also completed our PADI Open
Water Scuba Diving course - a real challenge for me - but it was so worth it.
After Sinai, I moved to London after being accepted to study
English at Queen Mary, University of London.
I totally fell in love with London, and all the opportunities it has to
offer, and I adored student life! It was
half-way through this fresher year that I was accepted to move to Melbourne,
Australia for a year studying abroad.
Going to the other side of the world was quite a scary thought, but I
was ready for the challenge. In Australia, I snorkelled at the Great Barrier
Reef, volunteered at a juvenile prison, and met another wheelchair user, Alex,
who was to become my travelling partner for the year. Of course, I managed to fit a little study
time in, too... Urging myself to grab
such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity like moving to Australia is something
that I'm so proud of. It would have been
so much easier to sit back and stay in my comfort zone, but taking that risk
was the best thing I've ever done.
I returned to London in July 2012, after heading from
Australia to America to intern at the United Nations in New York. It was at this time that I received a call
from the London 2012 team, saying that my application to be a Games Maker at
the Paralympic Games had been successful.
The day before my first shift, I got another call, asking me if I would
talk at a press conference the following morning. I said yes, thinking nothing else of it. But, lo and behold, I arrived that morning to
be greeted by Lord Sebastian Coe - we'd be doing the conference together in
front of loads of journalists! I told
them all how amazing the Games had been for those with disabilities, 'lifting
the cloud of limitation' on everything that they thought was previously
possible.
I then worked at the Excel arena, working as a Games Maker
in the warm-up team for Wheelchair Fencing.
I absolutely loved it. We got the
chance to take athletes out onto the field of play, and then take photos with
them and their medals!
Seb then went on to use my 'cloud' quote in his closing
ceremony speech of the Paralympics. My
phone was going mad with calls and texts - I couldn't believe it! My friend Tom and I had previously spoken
about how great it would be to write an accessible travel guide for the next
set of Games at Rio 2016, and this was suddenly our opportunity. I quickly got in touch with Seb and the team
at the British Paralympic Association, both of whom have supported my ambition
to create the guide right from the start.
I am now writing the guide in association with Dorling Kindersley and
Rough Guides. We are currently trying to
raise sponsorship so that we can distribute the guide free of charge to those
who will benefit the most from it. I'm also about to start a Master’s degree in
Disability Studies at the University of Leeds, and I'm hoping that my dream to
help others with disabilities to embrace the idea of travelling the world
really makes a difference!
I am so fortunate to have been given so many wonderful
opportunities, and each one has led to another one. To anyone reading this, the only advice I can
give is to urge you to say 'yes' to any exciting offer that is made to you; you
never, ever know where it might lead!
Next week's blog post will feature a short Q+A with Emily about her experiences at London 2012 and her plans for the future - so stay tuned!
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