Everyone is really afraid of getting out there and not being good. That's the challenge: To be afraid and know people are staring at you and know you might not do all that well, but you do it anyway. What singles out the successful athlete from the ones who never make it past a plateau, it that successful athletes risk failure, even though they are terrified.

When I watch Mad Men and I see the patronising attitudes to women that are so shocking for all of us to watch now, I feel that I've lived and see the same evolution in this regard around disability.

Life is about making your own happiness - and living by your own rules.

I had a paper round and every night I would put the dinner on before Mum came home from work. I was capable because I had to be.

If we want to discover the full potential in our humanity, we need to celebrate those heartbreaking strengths and those glorious disabilities that we all have...it is our humanity, and all the potential within it that makes us beautiful.

A lot of my life is about will - having the will to prove what my body can do.

True beauty is when someone radiates that they like themselves.