04
THE ALLEYNIAN 710
FOILING
I don’t think we’re taught as young people to talk about difficult feelings “
Oliver Lam-Watson OA, two-time Paralympic medallist and advocate for inclusivity, talked to Ozan Okvuran (Year 13) about life, sports and how he would like society to change for the better
OPPOSITION
Ozan Okvuran : Can you start by giving an idea of how things were for you when you were a student at the College, and to what degree you discussed issues around disability? Oliver Lam-Watson : To be honest, I wasn’t ready to talk about my disability, and I think that a lot of people realised that. No-one questioned it; no-one asked. That was kind of the way I liked it for several years, because I didn’t want to draw attention to my leg, or to the fact that I couldn’t walk. For me it was about being as far away from the word ‘disability’ as possible and about just saying, oh, it’s an accident. It was a sports accident. It will get better soon.
OO : What motivated you?
OL-W : I had years and years of just feeling like I was less than everyone else; of feeling, you know what – I can’t do this. People had always told me I couldn’t, and then, I thought, well, what if I can? What if people telling me what I can and can’t do all the time is wrong? What if I can be an athlete? What if I can walk and run again? What if I can go to the gym and train? OO : You were at a significant crossroads in your life. You were faced with the prospect of amputation. How did you deal with the stress? OL-W : Actually, I didn’t know how to deal with it. I don’t think we’re taught as young people to talk about difficult feelings and to acknowledge those things. Amputation is usually forced on a person as a result of an injury or an accident. So to be faced with the decision of whether or not to amputate is very unusual. It’s akin to being faced with losing a loved one, because you’re losing a part of yourself. I was studying architecture at the time and I was into cameras, so I would drive around in my car, put a GoPro up and just talk, for hours. I did it once a week, and it was
OO : Did things change, and if so, when?
OL-W : It was actually at Dulwich College Prep School [now Dulwich Prep London] that my disability got worse. Around the age of about nine, my leg became a lot more painful. I remember that going from lesson to lesson was just a nightmare. So I actually started using crutches at that point. And I think as I grew, and didn’t use my leg, it became very tight. The nerves, the tendons and the muscles didn’t grow in the same way that they would have done if I had been walking on my leg.
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