I was born with left-sided hemiplegic cerebral palsy. I don’t remember a time when life wasn’t filled with barriers, but I do remember what it felt like to constantly be underestimated.

Growing up, I was often the only disabled child in school. I experienced bullying, isolation and low expectations from people who saw my disability before they saw me. I was told, directly and indirectly, that there were things I simply wouldn’t be able to do. Looking back, I realise that the biggest barrier wasn’t my cerebral palsy—it was other people’s perceptions.

Thankfully, I was stubborn enough not to believe them.

Sport became my escape and ultimately changed the direction of my life. It gave me confidence, independence and an identity beyond my disability. Representing Great Britain as a Para Athlete remains one of my proudest achievements, not because of the medals or the competitions, but because it proved that disability should never define someone’s potential.

When I retired from competing, I knew my journey wasn’t over. I wanted to create opportunities for other disabled people, whether through coaching, classification, education or simply helping someone believe in themselves. Over the last twenty-five years I have worked with hundreds of disabled people, supporting them to access sport, employment and education, while also helping organisations understand what true inclusion really means.

But despite everything I had achieved, I still found myself facing unnecessary barriers. I was regularly reminded that people often lacked confidence around disability, not through malice, but because they had never been given the opportunity to truly understand it.

That became the driving force behind Ability Consultancy.

For several years I delivered disability awareness training, sharing my lived experience alongside practical guidance. The feedback was always positive, but I left every session asking myself one question: How do we move beyond telling people about disability and actually help them experience the barriers disabled people face every day?

That question became Xplore DisAbility.

Creating Xplore DisAbility has been one of the biggest challenges—and one of the proudest achievements—of my career. It wasn’t built by a technology company looking for a new product. It was built from lived experience.

Every scenario, every activity and every challenge within the platform has been influenced by situations I, and countless other disabled people, have encountered. Whether it’s trying to navigate a building with a mobility impairment, understanding the frustrations of inaccessible environments, or experiencing different forms of visual and hearing impairments, the aim has never been to simulate disability. It has always been to help people understand the barriers that society creates, and how small changes can make an enormous difference.

My ambition has always been bigger than creating an app. I want Xplore DisAbility to become a catalyst for cultural change. I want schools to use it to educate the next generation. I want businesses to use it to create genuinely inclusive workplaces. I want organisations to stop thinking about accessibility as a compliance exercise and start seeing it as an opportunity to create environments where everyone belongs.

Today I continue to wear many hats—as an educator, consultant, international classifier, coach and entrepreneur—but they are all driven by the same purpose: breaking down barriers so disabled people can live, learn and earn alongside everyone else.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that inclusion doesn’t happen because we write policies or celebrate awareness days. It happens when people truly understand each other.

Everything I have built has come from a simple belief: I don’t want the next generation of disabled people to spend their lives proving what they’re capable of. If I can help change attitudes, influence organisations and create opportunities that I never had growing up, then every challenge I’ve faced has been worth it.