Boy Racer

Mickey got his first NHS wheelchair at two years old. “It was a blue plywood cart with two armchair casters, two rubber wheels and a moulded cushion!, said Mickey. “ It was a museum piece really but I loved zipping around the house in it”.

Mickey attended mainstream education at Hart’s Hill Nursery and Holmer Lake County Primary.

His sporting abilities were first noted at the Arthog Outdoor Education Centre on the Welsh coast during his junior school days. Staff at the centre were amazed that he could canoe, rock climb, abseil and body board better than his ‘able bodied’ peers.

At 11 years old, he was spotted by Paralympian Deborah Brennan and her father Keith. They saw Mickey in his day chair speeding around the school hall during a game of dodge ball at the Saturday club .

They suggested Mickey try wheelchair-racing. Mickey said yes and the following week he and his parents made the first of many drives to the Home of Birchfield Harriers at the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham.

He started training once a week at first, and competed in his first race just a couple of months later at the West Midland Regional Athletics Championships, again held at the Alexander Stadium. Mickey was entered in the 60m and 100m - he won both with ease..... and has never looked back!