Rio Boothe is 19, studying Sport Business at Liverpool John Moores University. He is also an aspiring Paralympian. He tells us his story.
On my Cerebral Palsy
I’ve got right side hemiplegia, which is basically weakness, all on my right side. I’ve got a limited range of motion in my leg. If I was to, say, wiggle my toes in my left leg, I wouldn’t be able to necessarily in my right leg.
It affects me in a number of ways – I can get tight muscles when I walk. I have to wear a splint on my right leg. I wear my splint every single day, whatever I’m doing, even when I’m running.
My right hand is shorter than my left hand – about a centimetre difference. My grip and mobility in that hand is not good. So, for example, I can’t carry two drinks at a time.
I’ve found ways to adapt. You’ve got to. But that’s how it affects me day, day to day.
On running
I was never really sporty in high school. I got bullied because of my disability. When I was doing A-levels at college, that’s when I met people who started talking about athletics, basketball, whatever they were doing, and they didn’t see my disability as a barrier. And I thought, I may as well just give this a go. Then I found a club, Manchester Harriers, who I’m training with now and compete with.
I started running 5K’s during lockdown. And then I found 5Ks were a bit too long for me. I didn’t really want to do them anymore. But I still wanted to stay active – I didn’t want to stay in the house all day. I found a local athletics track, which was open during lockdown, where anyone could just go and train, so I went there and started running.
On being bullied
I was bullied at school. It was mainly just name calling, people just taking the mickey out of my disability, how I walk, or calling me a cripple… things like that. That was mainly through year 7 and a bit of year 8.
I feel as if I should have started earlier with my athletics and not really cared what people think of me. But it’s hard growing up, getting bullied. I just used to brush it off, but thinking about it now, I cared too much about what people thought and how people perceived me. “Why does his arm look like that?”, because when I run my arm doesn’t move, it’s asleep on my left side. I would say to myself, “Don’t care about what other people think”, but obviously it’s easier to say than to do.
I can do as much as I’m capable of doing. And I can probably do it better than you. I might do it at a slower pace. But what I’ve got going for me is that I’m never going to give up.
On my hopes
I want to get to the Paralympics. That is the main goal for me. I want to get to the Paralympics, win gold, win titles, just be the best version of myself. I can inspire other people who are in similar positions, not necessarily with cerebral palsy, but people with other hidden disabilities as well.
It’s breaking this whole stigma of ‘she’s not disabled enough, he’s not in the wheelchair’, all these things. And that is what I want to talk about. Sport has really helped me embrace my cerebral palsy and to feel free to talk about it.