STILL only 28, disabled athlete Stephen Miller has crammed a lifetime into the last three decades.
Born with cerebral palsy, he has overcome prejudices, physical limitations and the death of a close friend to become a record-breaking gold medallist and an inspiration for hundreds of disabled athletes.
“My friends say I’m way too young to have an autobiography yet,” laughs Stephen, as he sits on the sofa at the home he shares with his parents Ros and John.
“It’s been really hard work and it’s taken me two years but I’m glad I did it.”
The front room in the semi-detached house in Cramlington is a showcase of Stephen’s triumphant sports career.
There are two glass cabinets crammed with medals, including his three gold Paralympic gongs, the walls are adorned with signed photographs of him meeting sporting stars and a trophy he received for North East Sports Personality of the Year sits proudly on the windowsill.
Above Stephen’s head hangs a striking image of the athlete, overcome with emotion and wiping away a tear, after winning a gold medal at the Paralympic Games in Athens.
These are just a handful of the accolades he has received over the years.
“This is another one of his world records,” says his mum as she holds aloft a silver plate inscribed with his name.
When asked how many he has, she smiles, “We’ve lost count.”
His achievements are outstanding.
He has won gold medals for throwing the club at the Atlanta, Sydney and Athens Paralympic games and is the current world, Paralympic, European and National record holder for the sport.
A quick tally of his honours show he has 15 international medals for club and six for discus while nationally he has notched up 19 gold medals and one silver for both club and discus.
“I have achieved so much it is hard to pick out one as my greatest achievement,” says Stephen, who works as a web developer for the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Gateshead.
“Each one in itself is a massive achievement for me. Personally, getting working and getting a job is one of the biggest achievements to me.”
Stephen was born on May 27 1980 at Princess Mary maternity hospital in Newcastle.
It was a difficult birth. He was born in the breech position and starved of oxygen during the delivery.
His parents were devastated when he was diagnosed with athetoid cerebral palsy, a form that results in involuntary movement, but instead of suing for compensation they decided to concentrate their efforts on giving their son the best life possible.
They treated Stephen no differently from his younger brother Jonathan, who came along six years later.
He says: “My parents brought me up as a normal child.
“They never mollycoddled me and I was always going out and playing in the street with the other kids.
“With my disability I have learned to get around things.”
There have been many times over the years that Stephen has wondered what his life would have been like if he didn’t have cerebral palsy.
But he tries not to dwell on it and instead prefers to exude a positive outlook .
“It is something that does go through my mind especially in your teenage years,” he says. “It becomes more obvious you are not the same as your friends.”
One of the things the athlete is most passionate about is promoting disability sport in the region and fighting prejudices that many disabled people face.
He trained as a coach so he could help young people achieve their goals, just like he did. “One of the hardest things in my life has been dealing with other people’s perceptions,” says the ardent United supporter.
“It’s getting better though and disability is a lot more accepted in society.”
One of Stephen’s role models since he started doing sport at the age of 11 was a man called Norman Bates, himself a medal-winning Paralympian, who inspired the young boy to excel in sport.
Sadly, the man he admired died in late 2002 and his death hit Stephen hard.
“He was there for me from the start. He was an ex-Paralympic athlete and someone I looked up to.”
Stephen has dedicated his autobiography to Norman, as well as his family, who have been a tremendous support to him throughout his career.
Kevin Keegan, who the Paralympian first met when he was three, has written a glowing foreword to the book.
Photographs included among the pages is a who’s who of the sporting world.
As well as the United manager Stephen has met Alan Shearer, John Burridge, Bobby Robson, Kelly Holmes, Boris Becker and Sebastian Coe, to name a few.
So, not even into his 30s and with so much behind him, what else does he want to do? “I would like to be an ambassador for disability sport,” he says.
:: Paralympian: My Autobiography by Stephen Miller, is published by Tonto Books on July 28, priced £9.99, and available from all good bookshops including Amazon, Borders, Waterstones, Fenwick and The Back Page.
The book will be officially launched on Thursday July 24 at Club 206, St James’s Park, at 7.30pm. Readers are invited to attend the free event.
See tomorrow’s Chronicle for extracts from the book.
No comments:
Post a Comment