Will Pike

Not pretend to be.

You can't.

Chapter 9.

These are my brothers.

The change in life that Will has experienced happens to literally hundreds of thousands of people around the world every year.

People who wake up one day and their life is altered completely.

Imagine yourself in that situation.

It's hard to think how you would respond, how you'd cope.

Will has chosen to see it as an opportunity.

An opportunity to help create change.

I think the spinal injury, though desperately tragic, was an opportunity to represent myself in a way that enables me to feel proud

and also represent a group of people who are still marginalized, still second-class citizens.

Like, I live in North London, I live in an affluent area, and every week, every month, a new shop opens up with the same stepped entry, and I'm still barred from entering into that premises because of shoddy, outdated design.

You know what I mean?

So to be a part of that is incredible.

because disability affects like 24% of the population.

I think the stats globally are like 1.6 billion, UK it's like 16 million.

Of course, that is not all spinal injury, like that's visual impairment, being deaf, being born with cerebral palsy, having Down syndrome.

These are all conditions that meet disability framework

My lived experience is not the same as theirs, but I remember going to the Arsenal after I'd been injured and I remember getting into the disability section.