Ade Adepitan: 'The faster I was, the stronger I was, the more independent I became'

We asked the TV presenter and former wheelchair basketball player, 45, what his younger self would make of his adult life

When I was a kid in school, about 13 years old, we were asked one day to write an essay about we thought we’d be doing at the turn of the century, the year 2000. I worked out that I’d be 27 then, and thought that was just super old, yet now I’m 45.

My parents moved us from Nigeria to east London seven years earlier, leaving my sister behind. They wanted to take both of us, but they couldn’t afford both. My sister had Down’s syndrome, but I had a physical disability from catching polio as a baby, and because they were worried I was going to deteriorate they took me instead. It took a few years for them to be able to afford to bring her too, and it played a big part in my psyche when I was growing up, because I was aware of the massive sacrifice my parents had made for me. 

East London wasn’t exactly the perfect environment if you were black. It was a little bit hostile, so my parents didn’t really allow me to play outside. I had loads of friends who’d be out there on the street playing football, but I’d have to watch them from the window. That made me more of a dreamer, and the way that I could escape was either through watching TV or reading books or using my imagination, and things grew from there. 

My main ambition was to be a sports star. I wanted to be the best footballer and the best basketball player that I could be, and win medals and represent my country and all that stuff. I knew that sport would give me physical strength, so I tried to walk further and further on my calipers and I ran up and down the stairs on all fours, and I made obstacle courses that I’d get all the kids on the street to do with me. I did all of that stuff because the faster I was, the stronger I was, the more independent I became and the less I’d have to rely on anybody to do anything for me. That was the thing I wanted least: to have people helping me.

As a teenager, I was given a sports wheelchair by Frank Bruno’s boxing club and I started using it instead of my calipers. My dad wasn’t happy but I felt more independent, and at 15 I was selected for the junior world powerlifting championship in Miami. My parents wanted me to study, but I left home with no money at the age of 16 so that I could make my dream of playing wheelchair basketball come true. 

It wasn’t easy getting there, but the year 2000 came around and that summer I represented Great Britain at the Paralympics in Sydney. There were 110,000 cheering people in the Olympic Stadium and it was a world away from the leaden, dreary sky of Plaistow. That was one of the landmark moments in my life – the stuff of dreams. That’s what it took to prove to my parents that I’d made the right decision, and young Ade would have been happy to see that.

There have been loads and loads of setbacks, but today I’m a travel journalist, TV presenter, documentary maker, and now, as of more recently, a children’s author. If you’d told me as a kid that I would be where I am today, that I would have an MBE, that I would be someone who people stop on the street to ask for my autograph and my picture, that I’d have written books and travelled the world, I’d definitely have been surprised, but super amped about it all all. I got married in St Paul’s Cathedral in August to the most beautiful, kind, talented person I know (TV presenter Linda Harrison), and I’d have been speechless to see any of that.

I think everyone except me probably thought deep down that my disability was going to make it hard for me to find work, find a life partner, and progress in the world, just because of the way the world was set up. I always felt I was as good as everyone else, and I was excited for the future. I’m glad that future has been as exciting as I’d hoped.

Ade Adepitan will discuss his new book series, Ade’s Amazing Ade-ventures, at Bath Children’s Literature Festival on Saturday September 29 at Komedia, 2-2:45pm.