FIRST PERSON: Caerleon fundraiser Ieuan Coombes

He tells reporter Steven Prince how he is preparing for the next stage of his life – the working world.

“I’m not a huge fan of the word ‘disabled’. I think it would be more appropriate to us ‘differently-abled’.

I was aware of my condition from a very early age, but I have not let it hold me back.

I am thankful to my parents and wider family as well as friends and support staff at school for allowing me to become who I am which incorporating my condition, cerebral palsy, into my life.

Starting life and knowing you are disabled right from the outset can be daunting but I think it has really helped me in making more driven to succeed.

This is something which I have had to deal with and process strategies to compensate for my disability.

There were challenges, I didn’t walk until I was four or five, but having that experience of knowing what was on my horizon, facing up to the reality, allowed me to develop much faster as a person.

During my youth, I had somewhere between 18 and 20 operations, some were minor admittedly, but all were linked into my condition.

In 2007, I had multi-level surgery, where the doctors broke both my legs and re-set and re-position my hips so that my gait would be straighter and my hips would not continually dislocate.

That took about a year to 18 months to recover from and that was the biggest operation I had during my younger years.

It was worth it however. It gave me a better quality of life and has allowed me to live more independently.

I think for me, the fundraising came as a result of people having helped me when I was younger, and with that obviously came the charitable side of things.

It was a way of giving back. So many people helped me during my younger years that it was important to give something back.

I know for a fact that if it wasn’t for people fundraising for causes that I was involved in – Bobath and Bristol Children’s Hospital to name just a few – my quality of care, and ultimately, my quality of life would not have been the same.

I started out with the Sparkle Appeal, which is based at the Serennu Children’s Centre in Newport as they had helped me when I was younger.

I liked their version of what they were trying to achieve for the children and young people of Gwent, particularly in creating the specialist children’s centre. It really is a superb facility for children.

This was back when I was 18 and that was after many years of physiotherapy and operations, I just felt I could do something which would help.

I started to plan a number of events around the service users’ wishes – what they wanted to see to benefit them as they were the most important aspect of the centre.

That, led naturally, onto fundraising adventures.

Richard Hinton, the chairman of Sparkle at the time, and I devised a number of possible options, including a mammoth challenge to raise money through either a swim across the English Channel or a bike ride.

It was decided, after consulting with one of Sparkle’s other supporter - a charity called Ordinary to Extraordinary – to do the bike ride.

They were organising a London to Paris trip in September 2013 and Richard and I decided to join in.

That was the biggest challenge, and fundraising activity, which I was able to do for the Sparkle Appeal. It was great as there was such camaraderie around the whole event.

I see fundraising as a major part of the remainder of my life. It’s the whole idea of giving back which remains key to me.

Recently, I completed the 100 mile Carten cycle with the Morrello Clinic, who I have been working for as well. That was a team event, which again feeds into the idea of fundraising and giving something back.

Having completed my sporting degree at Cardiff Metropolitan University, the next challenge that I will face is arguably the most difficult – the working world.

My ambition would be to work within the equality sector, perhaps as an equalities officer to make sure that people with disabilities, or anyone for that matter with barriers in their life, has the opportunities and provisions to allow them to flourish.

Anything working with people, I am considering all the options available to me. However, it is something which needs to be right for me and my family.

For someone looking to use my Sports Development degree, it is a fantastic time for disability sport following the success of the para-athletes at London 2012.

They are able to complete tasks, perhaps in a slightly different way, but this applies to a sporting scenario or even a working scenario.

I firmly believe that life is about learning and if people can be open about their difficulties or their disabilities, it can add so much to society.

My hope, as I continue through my career, is making sure that people with disabilities can be recognised and successful in every area of life.

Integration is key. It needs to run alongside specialist care provision, which must not be lost either.

I want to achieve the same things in life as everyone else – a good career, a good education and so on. I guess I don’t want to live my life with regrets.

I’m excited for the future. I currently play wheelchair rugby for Ospreys and I am working towards my coaching qualifications as well.

Sport has been such a huge part of my life and has helped me to find ways of getting around my cerebral palsy.

I was competing at international level in athletics until the age of 15 but wheelchair rugby is something which I have grown in as I didn’t like it at first.

To play rugby for a club like the Ospreys is a huge honour, and as a proud Welshman, to be able to play the version of our national sport suited to me is amazing.

I’m playing in an international tournament in Swansea this summer. We could have gone somewhere abroad but I guess you can’t have everything.”