I’m an athlete with a condition called Usher Syndrome. It’s a rare genetic disorder that left me hearing-impaired at birth and then, at the age of 15, to learn that I have a degenerative vision impairment that meant I could eventually go completely blind.

How I’ve dealt with that - or not dealt with it, more importantly - has led to mental health issues which I've spent most of my adult life managing and learning from.

In my early 20s, I lost my identity. I thought ‘well, it’s going to get worse, I’m going blind, no-one can help me, I’ve just got to  live my life’. So I basically acted as if I didn’t have this disability, and by not coming to terms with it early on, denying it's existence and subsequently avoiding things that I was passionate about - like the sports that I played for my entire youth - have manifested into bouts of depression and a daily grind with anxiety.

I didn’t realise when I gave up sport at age 18 that I could compete against other vision-impaired people, so I just gave up as I just couldn't bare the thought of not being able to compete because my eyes weren't working properly. It wasn’t until I came full circle 10 years later, back into sport, that my life changed - especially when I got into triathlon in 2012 and had a goal of making the Paralympics.

I still deal with mental health issues today. Every day. It doesn’t go away. You just have to learn to manage it. But I’m a completely different person now living a different life altogether - living my childhood dream of being an elite athlete.

It doesn’t have to be a disability; it can be any challenge in life, and learning from how people face adversity and come through challenges and what tools they’ve used.

Essentially it’s just about trying to share my experience. And even if one person benefits from it, that’s a win, right?