Two Scottish veterans are set to compete in the Rio Paralympic Games thanks to support from Help for Heroes
Two Scottish ex-service people are set to represent their country in the Paralympic Games in Rio this month thanks to support from Help for Heroes.
Micky Yule from Musselburgh is part of the powerlifting team of the British Paralympic Association and is set to compete in the RioCentro venue on 10th September in the Men’s 65kg competition.
Jo Butterfield from Glasgow is on the athletics team of the British Paralympic Association (BPA) in F51 Club Throw and F51/52 Discus. She competes in the Olympic Stadium on Sunday 11 September (Club Throw) and Wednesday 14 September (Discus).
I’ve dedicated myself to this sport and have worked incredibly hard to get to this point. To be named as a member of the team is a great honour - Micky Yule
Micky has been supported into sport by Help for Heroes, who work in partnership with the BPA and UK Sport to provide military athletes with an introduction to Paralympic sport.
A former staff sergeant who served with the Royal Engineers, Micky lost both of his legs above the knee when he stepped on an IED in Helmand Province in 2010.
Micky knew he wouldn’t be able to continue his career in the army and while recovering, he began to focus on his future. A competitive Powerlifter pre-injury, Micky was keen to get back in the gym and he did just that.
Six years on and 46 operations later, Micky has represented his country on numerous occasions. His most significant achievement to date was competing on home soil at the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games where he finished 4th.
He said: “I’ve dedicated myself to this sport and have worked incredibly hard to get to this point. To be named as a member of the team is a great honour, and I’d like to thank everyone that has supported me to reach this point.
“My coaches, Help for Heroes and my family have been there for me throughout my entire journey. They weren’t jumping on me because I was going to go to Rio; they were supporting me because they wanted to get somebody who had been through a bad time just a bit better.”
Jo is originally from Doncaster but has lived in Glasgow for the last 20 years. She worked alongside the British Army until in January 2010 she discovered she had a tumour on her spinal cord. After a scan, Jo was taken for surgery where she was told there was a 0.01% chance of paralysis; she woke up paralysed from the waist down.
Jo began her rehab during a six months stay in hospital, where she took part in sports once a week. She said: “I was one to try everything. It was a chance to be able to not just sit and do stretches on the physio bed, to actually do something fun.”
She went to the Spinal Games, which takes place every year where every spinal unit in the country competes against each other at a variety of sports. There Jo made it her mission to try every single sport from pool to bowling to swimming.
Six months later and after leaving hospital, Jo joined a local wheelchair rugby team and later became vice-captain.
In 2014, Jo was classified as a F51 athlete and began competing in regional meets in both the discus and club throw events. In August that year she was selected for the Great Britain team to compete at the 2014 IPC Athletics European Championships. There she competed in the F32/51 club throw, and set a new European record winning gold.
“I met a guy called Michael Kerr who plays for Great Britain and we started training every day. And I realised that I was enjoying the training more than actually the work I was doing. It was him that said to me 'this could be your profession'.
"To cut a long story short, I got accepted on a Go for Gold programme with UK Sport and British Athletics and they looked at a talent transfer to British Athletics for seating throwing and very quickly I sort of realised that this was something I was quite good at and within 18 months I was sort of competing at world level.”
The following year Jo travelled to Dubai to take part in the Fazaa International. She won the F32/33/51 discus beating the previous F51 European record by 27 centimetres. She also improved on her European record in the club with a throw of 19.69 which saw her take gold.
In July, Jo competed in her third IPC Grand Prix of the year, held at the Olympic Park in London where she won both the discus and club throw.
Jayne Kavanagh, performance pathway manager at Help for Heroes, said: “We’re proud to work in partnership with the British Paralympic Association to provide military athletes with an introduction to Paralympic sport.”
“We know that sport plays a big part in the recovery journey, providing a sense of confidence and purpose as well as improving general wellbeing. We encourage anyone that might want to try sport for the first time post injury to be inspired by these athletes and they too could find and experience the power of sport in their day to day lives.”
Find out more about the Rio Paralympics and how to support Micky and Jo at www.paralympic.org/rio-2016
