±«Óãtv

It's been a frantic seven days since I left the (relative) calm shores of the UK, flying out of Heathrow on the way to the .

First stop: Hong Kong

Here, some of the British team were fine-tuning their preparations. Over the next few days, my plan was to film interviews with the squads in HK and Macau.

When we landed, it was encouraging to find my wheelchair was still in one piece and promptly available. Paralympic signs were up, officials were organised (and helpful) - within 45 minutes of touching down I had my accreditation and my luggage, and was arriving at the hotel!

The Paralympic movement has come a long way between the first International Games at Stoke Mandeville, which began 60 years ago today, and the Paralympic Games, which start in Beijing on 6 September.

Developments are constantly being made on and off the playing fields and in the way the events are covered by the media.

I'm the Disability Executive looking after our multi media disability coverage across Television, Radio and Online. It's my responsibility to promote Paralympics/disability events, features and stories across the ±«Óãtv.

I always knew I wanted to be and that I wanted to work for the ±«Óãtv. I had an idea which turned into reality when I joined the at 18.

A few years ago, I was looking at jobs in the ±«Óãtv and felt there was a gap in the market. I felt we needed to improve the coverage of disability sport on the ±«Óãtv.

It came off the back of the and the lack of ramp for at the ±«Óãtv Sports Personality awards. It was a real opportunity to make progress.

The role was to coordinate multi-media coverage and improve it by looking for new faces, new stories and new people. We cover - preview and review them, and bring new names and faces to the public.

The Disability online site was born from that and has been successful and award-winning. It's home for all Paralympic sports across the world. The aim is to raise awareness and look at different sports and be a provider for news stories as and when they happen.

Disability sport needed, and still needs, a dedicated person to push it. It's one of the many minority sports and it's up to the small team and myself to make it newsworthy and bring attention to the stories/personalities.

Our television coverage has increased during the past years with more comprehensive coverage of the Paralympics, the introduction of the and the integration of disability sport into events such as Wimbledon and the .

With radio we try to get more coverage on Five Live. If there's a story/event then there are opportunities during the daytime and evening shows. Disability sport coverage should be on, just as an able-bodied sport would be. With the ±«Óãtv's many outlets it's important to tell the story across Radio 4, Children's TV, the World Service, ±«Óãtv News and the local Regions to name just a few.

I used to compete for . I played at the World and European Championships but just missed out on being selected to participate at the Paralympics. Although I was working on our coverage of the Sydney Paralympics here in London, I was delighted to be part of our successful team in Athens and am looking forward to Beijing.

Outside of work I live with my teenage daughter Emma and naturally have a keen sporting interest. I am a season ticket holder at the Valley following the fortunes of Charlton and am chairman of .

Cricket and rugby are my other favourite sports and one of my most memorable sporting moments was watching I am also playing a bit of wheelchair tennis and enjoy swimming.