This Isn’t the Life I Imagined.
It’s Better.

I grew up like any other kid in Dublin, climbing trees, kicking footballs into neighbours’ gardens, and generally getting into the kind of trouble that made childhood great. But in my early teens, things took a turn. A series of relentless headaches, a failing eye test, and a scan revealed a brain tumour pressing on my optic nerve.

The diagnosis changed my life. Losing my sight shaped it.

After eight operations, I was left blind. The tumour came back. I struggled through school and college, sometimes having to stop and start again. But I kept going. I’ve now paraglided off mountaintops, skydived from planes, and skied down slopes in Austria. Things a blind person shouldn’t be able to do? I did them anyway.

Why? Because I refused to settle.

With the support of my family and friends, and a determination to live fully, I made a choice: I wasn’t going to just cope, I was going to thrive.

Today, I speak about:

• What it really means to be “disabled”

• Why resilience isn’t something you’re born with, it’s something you build

• How adversity can fuel growth and perspective

I never imagined I’d be doing this. But I’m grateful I am.

Because when we stop focusing on what we can’t do, we discover how much we actually can.