“I have seen so many light bulb moments" - meet the Inspirational Woman of the Year & hear her message

“Be proud”, says the 45-year-old from Penwortham - and she would know.

Because Claire, who is the Enterprise Vision Awards (EVA) Inspirational Woman of the Year, has overcome many hurdles in life to become an elite athlete and now a visionary business consultant, changing the way people think about others.

Born with cerebral palsy (CP), Claire said she was forced to be a trailblazer as a child, with bullying and misunderstanding the result. She said: “I rarely spoke at school. If I did, then the giggled and stares would start. I was always the only disabled child in school and nobody knew how to deal with it.

“I was an awful child in school. I was a rebel because I was bullied every day, purely because nobody understood.”

Now, determined to make a difference to younger generations, she is back in the classroom - and also in the boardroom - with Ability Consultancy, which specialises in disability awareness through lived experience. She and her team deliver personal stories about living in a world that is not always accessible or built for somebody who has an impairment, delivering workshops and motivational speeches help to break down barriers, promote inclusivity, and use sport as al tool to challenge perceptions in workplaces, schools, and beyond.

“It would have been helpful if someone like me had come into school and said ‘this is me, and everybody, it’s fine’. Because a high percentage of the kids who get bullied are the ones with a disability, and most of the time it’s because their peers don’t understand”, said Claire.

“So in our workshops, we show what it’s really like, not what the textbooks say or what the Government wants you to hear. We try to educate the next generation, and if we can change the mindset of young people, then we are actively going forward. For future generations it will be easier for them to navigate their lives.”

Claire and her team sometimes go into workplaces and schools with wheelchairs and goggles to simulate what it’s like for someone with an impairment, giving able-bodied people a hands-on experience of how difficult everyday tasks can be. She said: “When you have cerebral palsy like me, and one half of your body doesn’t work, things like tying your shoe laces or tying your hair up is a major, major challenge. So we ask people to have a go at doing these simple things using one hand, and very often, they can’t.

“I have seen so many light bulb moments. People get so frustrated because they can’t do it, but this is actually my every day life. And I can’t get frustrated, I have to find a way around it. Everybody says I’m the Queen of adapting, but I have no choice.”

Sport

It was in sport where Claire had her first breakthrough - it wasn’t until 16 and started athletics that she met someone else who also had CP, and life changed forever.

“I used to trampoline - it was my everything,” she said. “It helped with my balance and coordination and, one day, this woman who was helping out at the gymnastics club took me to one side and told me she was a special needs support teacher who was starting a disability athletics session. She asked if I’d like to have a go. Immediately, I said ‘absolutely’.

“I’ve always been really sporty - I was forever out on my bike and playing football - so I went down in the May and, by June, I was taking part in my first athletics comp in Lancaster. It was the first time in my life that I’d ever met other people with cerebral palsy, people who were the same as me. There were hundreds of them; I wasn’t on my own anymore.

“All of a sudden, I wasn’t the odd girl out with splints on her legs, everybody had them on. I was just like everybody else and that realisation opened a huge new world for me - a world I’d never seen before.”

And it was a world which very much suited Claire: trying her hand at the shot put and discus, she thrived in an environment where she was finally on a level playing field and where she felt she could express her obvious natural talents. She blossomed, quickly qualifying for and competing at the National Junior Championships before being fast-tracked into the England Cerebral Palsy athletics team. She broke national records in both her events in her first year as a para-athlete.

She also went to the 2001 CPISRA World Games, winning bronze in both her events and setting a new national record in the discus. A year later, she competed at the IPC Athletics World Champs, coming sixth in the discus before featuring at three consecutive Paralympic World Cups between 2003 and 2005. She also competed at the 2005 CPISRA World Games in the USA where she came fourth in both her events, before offcially retired from athletics in 2007.

During this time, Claire was also pursing academic achievements and in 2003 she graduated from Manchester Metropolitan University with a degree in Business Management with Sports Studies, something she put to good use when founding Ability Consultancy in 2019.

“Not an easy road”

Reflecting on the past seven years since Ability Consultancy was founded, Claire said: “There’s been progress, yes, but it’s been very slow - and it’s not been an easy road. Currently we’re seeing issues around disability employment. The Government access to work scheme is seeing cuts that nobody knows about. Quite a lot of disabled people are losing their jobs because their support has been taken away.”

Claire says society is changing, and she’s seeing more shops offering help to those who need it, but says sustained change will take time. She said: “There’s still a lot of trepidation - people not knowing what to say or how to act. It’s gradually changing, but we do see a lot of issues around terminology - nobody wants to offend you.

“I’m quite open about it. If you say it wrong, I won’t take offence, I’ll let you know in a nice way the better way to say something, and explain why - that’s important.”

Message

Asked what message she would have to a younger self, Claire said: “Be proud of who you are and the challenges you have overcome”.

She said: “Looking back now, I wouldn’t change anything. I have had an amazing life and I still do. I have new experiences all the time and I’ve had great opportunities that others don’t. I was training with someone in the run up to the World Championships in 2002, and he asked if I was proud to have CP. He said he was, because without it, he wouldn’t have been able to have travelled the world and thrown a discuss around a field, and actually it’s very true. Without it, I wouldn’t be me.”

“Anybody who is disabled should be proud and confident of who they are. Everybody has challenges, some more profound than others. And it sounds weird, but it’s fun. You have to think ‘how am I going to do this?’, and when you achieve something, the pride and recognition is so much more valid, because you’ve had to work harder.

“So, be proud of who you are, and don’t give up. Follow your dreams.

“And on International Women’s Day, we need to continue celebrating the strengths of all women and girls, continuing to push for a world where disabled women and girls are visible and valid in everything they do.”

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