To mark International Day of People with Disabilities on December 3rd Sam reflects on the personal significance this day holds after he was born with cerebral palsy and the impact sport has on his life both personally and professionally.
Being born prematurely at 25 weeks meant I, alongside my twin sister, did not have the easiest start to life, being in hospital for the first month of my life.
This, coupled with not being able to walk until the age of two, meant it was unsurprising when I was diagnosed with cerebral palsy (CP).
A neurological condition affecting movement and coordination, CP has different forms, with the one affecting me called hemiplegia meaning my left side is weaker and I have more problems with muscle control and coordination.
In my early years, I became aware that I was struggling with tasks others would find simple and natural, such as tying my shoelaces, riding a bike and holding a knife and fork like a ‘grown-up’.
However, having regular physio sessions was vital in improving my balance and coordination.
In terms of education, after struggling at primary school, for secondary school I moved to Egerton Rothesay School (ERS), an educational needs school in Berkhamsted where small classes ensured pupils were afforded more attention from teachers than usual if in a standard 30-person class in a mainstream environment.
My time at ERS gave me the confidence to earn a good standard of GCSEs and a place at college to study sports studies.
During this time I was playing disability football, starting at the Hertfordshire Disability Centre of Excellence before eventually joining my current team St Albans City Disability. This was my first taste of competitive football on a ‘level playing field’ with weekly training sessions and monthly tournaments.
It was a Pan disability team which meant my teammates had various disabilities including: learning difficulties, blind/visually impaired, deaf/hearing impaired and cerebral palsy.
It was great to test myself in these types of conditions and helped with many aspects aside from playing football. It taught me how to communicate with people who had all sorts of issues – both mental and physical, people who I may not have interacted with so closely away from the football pitch.
In between times, I had a spell at the South-east CP team where in our second year we trained at Chelsea’s training ground. This was the first time I had ever played with people who shared my disability and admittley a surprise to me, the standard was very high.
As with all of my sporting experiences, I have some brilliant memories including playing at the newly-opened St George’s Park in 2013.
I decided to study journalism and media at university and, having always enjoyed writing, particularly about sport, chose to attempt to turn my hobby into a career.
After completing my NCTJ diploma at the Press Association, albeit shorthand wasn’t my friend, I set upon working in para-sport.
Due to my lifetime of experiences, love of sport, and its niche in the writing market, it always felt natural that para-sport would be an exciting route to go down.
Due to my lifetime of experiences, love of sport, and its niche in the writing market, it always felt natural that para-sport would be an exciting route to go down.
To that end, I began writing for the International Blind Sports Association (IBSA) and International Wheelchair and Amputee Federation (IWAS) covering sports such as goalball, wheelchair fencing and judo.
So far in my early journalism career I have been lucky to attend the goalball European Championships in Rostock, Germany last year where I reported on the games for IBSA and ran their social media pages.
Despite my love of sport since a young age, I had never been too aware of para-sport until the London 2012 Paralympics, I became more involved in watching it.
Whether it was being part of an 80,000 strong crowd cheering on Hannah Cockcroft to 100m gold or the conveyor belt of noise around the stadium when David Weir came round, like much of the country was suddenly aware of para-sport.
I feel the way the whole nation took to the Paralympics meant people finally realised the extraordinary achievements these athletes were capable of.
Although the presence and interest in para sport has risen greatly since London 2012 Paralympics I still feel more and regular coverage is needed in mainstream media.
My disability has given me friends for life, mainly due to playing football but also was the reason I met Ella, my girlfriend of seven years.
Having hemiplegia saw me join the excellent Hemihelp Facebook group and with both of us being members, we started talking (mainly about football!).
From the start we already had a lot in common as Ella was also a twin, had left-side hemiplegia, loved sport and strangely was born just two days before me. For each other, we were one of only a few people we had talked to with CP and we became firm friends from the start, although there was one slight problem – she lived three hours away in Leeds.
After a year of speaking with a lot of late-night phone calls, we eventually met attending a Leeds v Watford match which thankfully ended in a draw!
Living up North, she converted me to rugby league and Leeds Rhinos (meaning I could finally see sporting success after my barren years with Watford) and the sport has recently seen the growth of physical and learning disability formats.
With most of our meetings since then revolving around sport, we have experienced the 2015 World Para-swimming Championships, the 2017 World Para Athletics Championships and the 2017 Super League Grand Final.
If I’m being honest, I would choose to have my disability as it has given me some brilliant life experiences and allowed me to meet some amazing people.
I’m glad the International Day of People with Disabilities is recognised worldwide as According to the WHO World Report on Disability, 15 percent of the world’s population, or more than 1 billion people, are living with disability.
Raising awareness of the various disabilities affecting people all around the globe with the 2020 theme ‘Not all Disabilities are Visible’ will hopefully help people understand that hidden disabilities are also as prevalent such as mental illness, chronic pain or fatigue.