You know, as a Paralympian the world would like to hear,
“How many records have you broken?
How many medals have you won?”
The world struggles to hear the real truths of what people experience behind closed doors
and that is what I came out with.
I shocked them that this is actually what happens to people with disabilities if
there are barriers.
Anne Wafula Strike is a Paralympian wheelchair racer...
and a disability rights activist.
Anne contracted polio as a child in Kenya.
Due to her disability, she was shunned by locals…
who believed she had been cursed.
They tried to burn my Dad’s mud hut down, so we had to flee.
But Anne and her father share a strong bond.
My Dad is my hero.
I am who I am today, I am here because my father believed in me when everyone else around
had rejected me.
He ensured she got a good education… and Anne became a teacher.
She met her husband, moved to the UK… and had their son.
That’s when Anne got her first wheelchair… and she discovered wheelchair racing.
The thrill I got when I was going round the track and overtaking the able bodied was just
so satisfying.
This is what I want to do.
She trained hard and excelled… eventually competing in the Paralympics.
I always sort of see wheelchair racing as the equivalent of Formula One.
It’s not about the disability, it is about what people can actually do and achieve when
there is support.
In 2016 Anne was travelling on a train.
And I wanted to go to the toilet and I realise, oh goodness gracious me this toilet is out
of order.
That was the only accessible toilet…
So Anne was forced to wait until the next station.
Which was a journey too far.
I had the accident.
And that was so humiliating.
Anne went home feeling angry and upset.
One day I was getting ready to go out and I was putting on make up in front of the mirror
and it just occurred to me that history could repeat itself.
I was going for a very important meeting and I say to myself, what if I come back sitting
in my own urine again?
I wasn’t going to let that happen.
That is when I went public.
[Speaker 2] Now, the government has told this programme
that it’s looking at better ways to ensure there are more disabled toilets available.
[Speaker 3] Yes, it’s after Paralympian Anne Wafula
Strike revealed she had to wet herself in her wheelchair because her train didn’t
have a working disabled toilet.
Anne’s courage initiated an accessibility action plan…
from the Department of Transport in the UK.
And this is something that will never be sort of swept under the carpet again because every
person with a disability knows that it is ok to speak about some of these issues and
speak about them publicly.
Anne has since returned to the village…
where she was rejected a child.
And the people would be staring and wondering, how did this happen?
You are not expected to find love, to have a child, to be someone’s wife, to be a teacher,
you know to speak up publicly, to advocate for issues that affect people in society.
You are not.
And here I was doing all those things.