I’m Graeme Ballard a 27 yr old paralympian. I first became involved in athletics in 1999 at the age of 20.

This is me (right) with fellow club member Michael Churm who also runs as a paralympian. It’s great to have someone beside me with a disability who enjoys athletics equally as much as myself. We get on really well together and although I don’t train at Chorley now we do meet up at all the meetings and help one another through the bad times as well as the good.

I ran at the college up in Lancaster where I was a border for three years and it was here where I first sampled running at competition level. Beaumont College is run by Scope the disability group and at that time was involved with CP Sport which was a group for disabled athletes. From here I was selected to run for the disabled Great Britain Team and in 2002 represented Great Britain for the first time at the World Championships where I run bronze medal at 200 metres. Just before going to the world championships I had joined Chorley AC under the guidance of Francis Crook and for 2 years enjoyed everything that Chorley had to offer. I ran in The European Championships for Great Britain gaining medals in 100m 200m and the 4x 100m relay. 2 Silver and a bronze was my collection from these championships.

Then the following year I was selected to do 100m and 200m in the Paralympics in Athens. I came back with bronze medal again for the 200 metres. At this stage I was forced to up my training at international level with a new coach base at sports City in Manchester but I still keep in touch with Francis Crook and will never forget all that he taught me. I still run for Chorley A.C. and enjoy these meetings just as much as the Great Britain competitions. I have won Gold at The German Open Championships and The Europeans in 2005 and this year came back with Silver from the World Championships. Whilst also collecting medals and training hard I have done some coaching badges under the guidance of John Payn and Diane Moss and whenever possible I help out with the youngsters at Holy Cross and whenever possible go into the schools locally to pass on any knowledge to help the youngsters. I intend to get as many coaching achievements as I can then when I am at the end of my career hope to be able to give back some of the good advice that others have passed onto me.

Graeme Ballard