Someone very close to me suffers immensely from mental illness, specifically OCD and other symptoms associated with it including anxiety which unfortunately makes day-to-day life incredibly hard for them.

Although there is so much work being done to understand mental health, a lot of people just don’t quite grasp the effect and extent it has on the people it affects.

For a lot of people, mental illness does not come and go but it is something they have to live with and fight against every day, just so they can live what others would call a 'normal life.'

During my injuries, whenever I would start asking myself ‘why me’, or feeling sorry for myself, I reminded myself that this injury was only a year-long suffering and there are people that live their whole lives with illnesses or disabilities.

I pulled a lot of my own strength from thinking of the person close to me, who has struggled with mental illness for many, many years and still manages to do incredible things.

By taking inspiration from them, I was able to pull myself out of bed on my darkest days and find the motivation to complete my rehab sessions and keep grinding away, because compared to what they have to brave every day, my obstacles didn't seem so bad.

I'm grateful for the opportunities I have and now that I'm fit and more resilient than ever, I'm ready to take on any challenges ahead of me and represent my country on the biggest sporting stage of them all, at Tokyo 2020.