Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Chair of the British Paralympic Association and professor of sports and exercise medicine, leading expert in Paralympic sports medicine and pioneer of safer Par
On the island
Eight records
This is David Bowie's Heroes and this is the music that was played as we walked into the opening ceremony in London 2012.
Hallelujah Chorus (from Messiah)
London Musici Chamber Choir and London Musici Orchestra
this, apart from being a wonderful piece of music, is something my dad would play... It just brings me back to family and my father.
We used to sing Jamaica Farewell in our class singing lessons... And then later on... his parents said, Would I like to go and spend the summer holiday with them in Jamaica?
when I was at medical school... I found the joy of singing as a group of people together... this version I've chosen is a live version because... it might be quite nice to hear the crowd coming in together.
I have the Bat Out of Hell album on... this track which is for crying out loud... But the reason I'm taking this track is because I know that despite how low things are, there's always hope, there's always tomorrow.
This Is MeFavourite
This is from The Greatest Showman... This Is Me by Keala Settle... it's such a powerful song and really it's about accepting who you are... It's a great anthem not just for disabled people... I think it's also quite powerful for me 40 years after my injury to finally accept, like, this is who I am.
this has so many different connections for me. Other than being a wonderful song and my wife and I love Neil Diamond... But this particular song, I sang it at an open mic session in an Irish bar in Andorra when I was learning to sit ski.
This is You'll Never Walk Alone... which I suppose ironically was at one point was You'll Never Walk Again... I also think it's an amazing lesson in life... Walk on with hope in your hearts and you'll never walk alone.
In conversation
Presenter asks
2:48What does that tell us about our capabilities as a sporting nation?
Well, it's the breadth of our expertise as well as the depth of it. People in Great Britain have invested in this movement, you know, for a long time now, and that gives us a head start, if you like. But they've really taken it to their hearts with London 2012 and things like that, where they've really got behind us. And so we really feel that whenever we travel and perform as a team, we know that we've got the nation now watching us and supporting us. And the athletes really feel that, and that's a wonderful thing to have.
Presenter asks
3:19What kind of issues do Paralympic athletes face when it comes to competing?
It started when I supposed I was doing a sports resident diploma at the London Hospital. And learning about the sort of support services Olympic athletes had. And I think, well, why don't Paralympic athletes get this same degree of support? And then thinking about. What are the additional problems that they have in terms of, for example, thermoregulation? If you have a spinal cord injury and you don't feel the heat, you will suffer worse as a consequence. So we had to look at how we would mitigate for that for Tokyo, for Atlanta, for different Games, thinking about the underlying conditions that people have that predispose them to certain illnesses or problems during competition that Olympic athletes don't face. So how do we mitigate for that?
The keepsakes
The book
Charles Dickens
I think that we've all been exposed to Dickens through T V and film and so on, but actually you need to get into the text to see the quality of his writing. But I want to have the time to really explore that and get into it, and I think this would be a great opportunity.
The luxury
adapted Segway with espresso machine
What I would like may not be a luxury. I have an adapted segue which allows me to go on the sand and the uh here also I I love walking on uh downs and on the beach and so on and this kind of adapted segue allows me to do that. But if possible a small little espresso machine on the back to have my coffee.
Presenter asks
5:37When it comes to the Paralympic movement, what is that story about for you? Is it about attitudes towards disability, about our ideas of what's possible, the limits we place on ourselves?
Yes, that's complex. I mean if you think back to 1948 when Ludwig Gutmann started the first Stoke Manderville Games... having an archery competition for 16 men and women... And then he kind of started something there because he felt that sport could play a really useful purpose in reintegrating people with spinal cord injury back into society. largely been veterans back then, right? Yes, but then the movement grew... It's become this broader, more inclusive games, which has allowed people with disabilities to participate in sport to show that if you give people an equal opportunity. They can excel. And the Paralympics is one element of society sport, but I think that's the same for anything. We just needed people to give people equal opportunity and give them a platform to be able to show what they can do.
Presenter asks
15:21What do you remember about that day [the injury]?
It was a cold wintry day. I'd recently come back from my skiing holiday... returned back to the station and I was asked would you play in this match? And the ball was tapped back from the line out and as I went to retrieve it, one of the opposition players kind of hit me early before I got to the ball and drove my head into the ground so my neck flexed onto the ground. I heard this massive crack and this electric shock sensation went down my arms and legs and I just lay on the ground and I said, don't move me, don't move me, just get the other doctor. And my colleague, Dr. Mike Bracebridge, came out and he put a collar on and they transferred me to the local hospital.
Presenter asks
20:10What gave you hope during that time [rehabilitation]?
I think the spirit of the people, the staff there, are just so amazing at embracing you and understanding that and seeing people who were previous patients from years past coming back for their outpatient appointments who would come and talk to you as well. You can understand there was a life outside because you you become almost institutionalized after nine months in a hospital. And you need to learn that there's a life outside as well.
Presenter asks
27:42Can you tell us about your own attitude to using your wheelchair in everyday life? How did you make peace with that and how do you feel about it now?
Yes, because I think in the early stages because I was making some recovery and getting back to doing a little bit of walking, you were seeing it as this goal of getting rid of you know not needing the chair and succeeding and so on but actually what I found was that it was actually a trip to Disneyland Paris with the children that that converted me that we hired a chair and I could get around all of it suddenly and participate in all these things but I could have walked possibly the end of Main Street and I'd have been done in my back would have been hurting... it totally transformed what I could do in life and so that was a real way of accepting having to use the chair long term and for me now it is a way of life the issues around it in terms of accessibility you know we're still not great on accessibility to all buildings to transportation. We've still got a long way to go in terms of that, but for me, it means I can get to places I couldn't get to otherwise, which is just so important.
“But every time I hear that track, I immediately get taken back to the opening ceremony of Paralympic Games, London 2012, and how the British people received us.”
“one of the things I did learn during my time lying there was how I would speak to patients in the future if I got back to working. Because this kind of group of medics would pass the end of the bed, have this discussion about the person in the bed and then move on and perhaps say the odd word to you. And I just felt this is not the way we treat people. This is not how you engage with people.”
“When you have these catastrophic events in life, you have to make a conscious decision. Are you going to face this on and make the best of it? Or are you going to let it sink you? And for me it was, no, I'm going to do the best that I can with this.”
“I think it has shaped me to be a better person, to be a better doctor.”