made in manchester

Presenter: Russell Fuller

Ahead of the Games later this year, Made in Manchester is to tell the remarkable story of some of the GB athletes who have had to adapt to Paralympic sport following life-changing accidents and degenerative illnesses.

In a special hour long programme broadcast  on BBC Radio 5Live, Russell Fuller meets a variety of hopefuls including Simon Munn (wheelchair basketball) whose life was turned upside down in 1991 after a routine walk home from the pub. “I took a shortcut across some railway tracks and got my foot caught. I saw the big white lights of a train coming around the corner and waited for it to take my leg off,” Simon tells Russell.

Meanwhile Russell meets Dani Brown who picked up a gold medal in archery in 2008 and is on course to repeat the feat four years later. She tells Russell how it was a degenerative illness that changed her life. “I would never have taken up the sport if it wasn’t for the pains in my feet. People always look for the negatives whereas I focus on the positives and have a far better life now.”

Rower Tom Aggar speaks to Russell Fuller about how he overcame a life-changing injury

Russell also talks to Tom Aggar (Men’s Single Sculls Rowing Gold Medalist from the Beijing Paralympics 2008), Darren Kenny OBE (Four cycling Gold medals in 2008 Paralympics), Ian Sagar (wheelchair basketball) and Britain’s most successful Paralympian Sarah Storey OBE.

The Path to London: A Paralympic Journey is produced by Andy Dickman and Ashley Byrne and is a Made in Manchester Production for Radio 5Live. The Executive Producer is Phil Collinge.

The programme was first broadcast between 12 and 1pm on Sunday, July 1st and will be repeated on 5Live at 6pm on Saturday, July 7th. It can also be heard via the BBC iplayer for the next two weeks.

Made in Manchester has produced a plethora of programmes for 5live including the recent The Day I Met The Queen which was made for the network’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations. The documentary included interviews with David Cameron, Nick Clegg, Sir Geoff Hirst, Virginia Wade, Ben Fogle, William Roache and the relatives of victims of the 911 atrocity and Aberfan disaster.