Every Paralympian deserves a gold medal

I once asked a woman I was interviewing for a job to explain her idea of stress. 'My son was in an accident when he was 12,' she said, 'and he's paralysed from the waist down.'

I have never forgotten that woman's words. Her son went on to  successfully compete in the Paralympics , no doubt with his mother's encouragement ringing in his ears.

Today we hear that a record 2.2 million seats have already been sold for the  Paralympic Games. At the opening ceremony on August 29,  athletes now leaving the Olympics will be replaced by 4,200  Paralympians, all of them with success stories  of their own.

However loud we cheered for our home-grown medalists  we should get ready to cheer a little louder for these fearless athletes who have never known the meaning of  the word 'can't.'

'Thanks for the warm-up,' joked one Paralympian on the last day of the Games. 'Now for the real thing.'

Never mind the Olympics - Anyone for bowls?

My sort of sport

'Were you any good at sport?' a friend asked recently as I sat in front of the TV doing my bit to support Team GB.  'It's not something that runs in the family,'  I replied, shaking my head sadly. Then I remembered my grandfather,  James R Brown, a member of his school football team, who later  excelled at bowls, winning a coveted trophy  in 1936. When I was a child he taught me how to play bowls - at Beau Sejour in Guernsey where that  win took place.

 St Sampsons School Guernsey, 1907.
J.Brown (far right)

Later, his son, sports journalist  Harry Brown worked at the Football League in Lytham St Annes, Lancashire, and edited their first official hard back book published in the late sixties.

Then again, I could mention my elder daughter who excelled at tennis, or her sister who captained the school hockey team, but they might never speak to me again.

So the answer's still the same - I was no good at sport - but I might just remember someone who was...

Paddle your own canoe - anyone for the Water Olympics?

History often highlights the genius of invention - and this 1950's converted van with 'built-on' canoe wouldn't look out of place on the rain-sodden roads of today. In fact it could well start a new fashion.

Visiting a vintage rally recently reminded me why I love history - and particularly historical fiction. There was an air of  nostalgia amongst the polished, painted and perfected motors of the past that evoked a real sense of  life in post-war Britain.

Have you ever wondered why some people hang on to relics of the past, nurturing them like small children, trying to keep themselves, as well as their possessions, forever young? It's because we don't want to grow old. Twenty-something are now having botox, thirty-year-olds worry about finding a suitable man to father their children, whilst older women are busy telling everyone that 'fifty is the new forty.'

Meanwhile, we all watch as the world changes,  wondering what to expect next.  Floods in summer, sunshine instead of snow, seem to have become the norm.  Maybe we'll all need to build a Noah's ark, or at least have a van-cum-canoe on the drive. But for now we can wallow in the past -  and still look forward to the future.