"In April 2005 my athletics career changed dramatically from conventional distance running on the roads and fells to ‘para athlete.’ As a result of a road traffic accident I had a badly damaged right ankle, a severe bone infection led to a below knee amputation in September 2006.

To aid my recovery after the amputation I started to regularly ride my turbo bike trainer, swim and after 3 months started to run on a high activity prosthetic foot. In 2008 I entered my first ‘super-sprint’ triathlon at Rother Valley in Sheffield using a borrowed wetsuit from fellow triathlete Nick Smith and riding an old hybrid bike. The next day I entered and won the first British Disability Triathlon over the sprint distance at Rother Valley. This was to be the start of my international ‘paratriathlon’ career. As a result of my wins I was able to persuade my local health authority to fund a running blade which was provided at Seacroft Hospital in Leeds.

In 2009 I was now able to cycle, run or swim on a daily basis and as a result I was selected to represent British Triathlon at the first World Series Triathlon for para athletes in London. The race was a ‘super-sprint’ and I finished 5^th. In my category which was for athletes with a lower limb disability. Although I was making good progress with my cycling and running I knew that swimming was always going to be my weak area so I decided to change my training focus to concentrate on duathlon for the 2010 season. To do this I biked or ran every day and did a couple of swim sessions at the weekend if not racing."

"In April 2005 my athletics career changed dramatically from conventional distance running on the roads and fells to ‘para athlete.’ As a result of a road traffic accident I had a badly damaged right ankle, a severe bone infection led to a below knee amputation in September 2006.

To aid my recovery after the amputation I started to regularly ride my turbo bike trainer, swim and after 3 months started to run on a high activity prosthetic foot. In 2008 I entered my first ‘super-sprint’ triathlon at Rother Valley in Sheffield using a borrowed wetsuit from fellow triathlete Nick Smith and riding an old hybrid bike. The next day I entered and won the first British Disability Triathlon over the sprint distance at Rother Valley. This was to be the start of my international ‘paratriathlon’ career. As a result of my wins I was able to persuade my local health authority to fund a running blade which was provided at Seacroft Hospital in Leeds.

In 2009 I was now able to cycle, run or swim on a daily basis and as a result I was selected to represent British Triathlon at the first World Series Triathlon for para athletes in London. The race was a ‘super-sprint’ and I finished 5^th. In my category which was for athletes with a lower limb disability. Although I was making good progress with my cycling and running I knew that swimming was always going to be my weak area so I decided to change my training focus to concentrate on duathlon for the 2010 season. To do this I biked or ran every day and did a couple of swim sessions at the weekend if not racing."

"In 2013 I worked on a similar training pattern as in 2012. As a result of my consistent bike and run training I was able to set a pb. 1.22 at the Clumber Park duathlon in March and then followed this up with my best position in the World Duathlon Championships finishing second in Ottawa in Canada.

I had to modify my training in 2014 due to a serious family illness. However I still managed to train with some consistency and I was pleased with 8^th. place in a very competative World Duathlon Championships in Pontevedra (Spain).

The consistency of my training improved in 2015 when I retired from my teaching job in the summer. I was now able to do longer bike sessions of around 3 hours and was able to recover from training much better as I was not having to fit training around work. I did a number of hard run/bike sessions which really improved my duathlon. In April I finished 5^th. in the European Duathlon Championships in Madrid which I was pleased with as I was the oldest in the race by about 10 years!

During 2016 I have been able to progress my training with some good longer sessions on the bike and running with a new prosthetic blade provided by my sponsors Steeper in Leeds. I raced consistently well to finish 6^th. in the European duathlon championships in Kalkar (Germany) and 9th. in my age group (55-59) in the World series triathlon in Leeds. in a seasons best of 1.22."