Great Ormond Street got me into table tennis, says top Paralympian

Medal patient: Will Bayley with nine-year-old Johnathan at GOSH
Ash Knotek

Paralympian table tennis player Will Bayley has told how he first played the sport while a patient at Great Ormond Street Hospital.

The world champion, 28, who won silver and bronze medals at London 2012, used a set of £5 bats on a tiny table, which was perfect as he was too ill to run.

Bayley spent much of his childhood at Great Ormond Street after being born with arthrogryposis, a rare disorder affecting the joints of the hands and feet. He had a number of operations for the condition but was later diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a blood cancer, when he was seven and was treated with chemotherapy.

Bayley today threw his weight behind the Evening Standard’s Give to Gosh appeal. He now lives in Sheffield where he trains every day. “I played a bit of table tennis on the tables in the hospital. It was the first time that I started playing. I also played a bit of football, just passing the ball to each other.

Top performance: Will Bayley winning silver at London 2012
Getty

“It was just a £5 set of table tennis bats but that’s how I started. It was perfect for me because I was so ill, but I played on a tiny table so I didn’t need to run.

“Then my gran bought me a proper table for my garage [when I came out of hospital.]” Bayley went on to compete in the London Paralympics and will be representing Great Britain at this year’s Rio Paralympics, where he will be aiming for gold.

In 2012 he returned to GOSH to open its school’s garden, and was able to meet other children suffering from the same rare condition he has.

Speaking about his time in hospital as a child he said: “I had to have my feet re-shaped and rebuilt, they weren’t usable. My arms were affected but there was nothing they could do about my hands. I had a lot of operations over many years.

“Then at the age of seven I got cancer. It was a scary time but I was at that age where I didn’t know 100 per cent that my life was in danger.

“I was always really happy in the hospital. I was always involved in activities and the sports around the hospital and I quite enjoyed it. GOSH made a massive effort to make me feel like I was loved there. The treatment didn’t make me feel good but the people were so positive it was fun.”

Referring to when he visited GOSH after the Paralympics in 2012 he said: “I went in with my medals and went to my old ward and saw a lot of children with my condition.

“It was inspiring for me to go back and see the kids. I told them to keep fighting and keep strong and positive. I am so grateful to GOSH. They saved my life and so many other people’s lives.”

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