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By day I'm a civil servant, by night I'm a climber. I was born with my right arm missing below the elbow, developed a degenerative tissue condition at a young age and more recently overcame cancer. 

Chemotherapy meant that I couldn’t get my left arm above my head. A friend of mine suggested climbing to improve my mobility. I didn't last very long on my first day. But during that session the focus needed to climb meant that, for the first time, I forgot I was different. I forgot all of my physical limits and my mental health issues. I could just focus on the wall. For the first time in a long time I felt connected to my body. Just for that, it became worth it. 

The minute I now approach the climbing wall and tape up there is a sense of peace that starts to enter my body. A smile is on my face and a spring goes into my step. Every other stress disappears. I can empty my mind. It doesn’t matter what's happened before. When I have my headphones in the world doesn’t exist. It's time for me and my body to get to know each other again. Its peace. Its escape. There is nothing but me and the wall. The wall is a true mirror of my state of mind and my state of self. If I'm stressed, it shows. If I'm upset, it shows in the way I climb. But when I'm ready to attack, the wall is there for me. It's not there to judge, it never changes – I do.  

As a career, the only plan I ever really had was to go into sport. That was all I knew. Just after I turned 19 I had a nasty accident on holiday and broke my leg. I found out a few weeks later my bone had broken so badly that it had essentially died. It had totally crumbled. 

My surgeons kept telling me that I shouldn’t opt for an amputation in the hope of being able to run again. But they didn’t know me and didn’t know how much it meant to me to be able to move freely.  

For me, running is the ultimate expression of being free. To function normally, we need to burn energy. We're built to run and I simply had to do it again. 

After years of trying alternatives and finding no solution, I begged them to remove my leg. All I felt when it came off was relief. A sub three-hour marathon is next on my list.  

What appealed to me about aerial is the freedom. It makes me feel alive. I can feel where every part of my body is and exactly what condition it is in. I can't afford to think about anything else when I do this. It's the only really time I have to focus solely on me and I think we all need that.