Ex-pupil Carly returns to AoM as a Paralympian to inspire young stars of the future

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When Carly Tait left Ashton-on-Mersey school she had little ambition to compete on the world’s biggest sporting stages – she preferred to get a job and socialise with her friends and family.

But she returned to the school yesterday as a Paralympian, working full-time towards her next big event,  the World Para Athletics Championships which will be held in London this summer.

Now a member of Team GB, she went back to her old school yesterday,  to inspire pupils to follow her into track and field Para athletics

Carly, who competed at Rio 2016,  took part in a wheelchair masterclass and question and answer session with pupils during her visit to AoM.

Carly did a question and answer session with some of the pupils at her old school

Her story isn’t the familiar one of years of training from a young age to become an elite athlete. Instead when London hosted the Paralympics in 2012 Carly attended the closing ceremony –  an event that transformed her life.

It was at that moment  she vowed to reach her goal to compete at the following Paralympics in Rio 2016 and four years later she was on the starting line of the T34, 100m in Brazil.

Carly, 31, who has cerebral palsy and lives in Wythenshawe, now trains as a full-time athlete after being granted a paid career-break from her marketing job at the Co-op to realise her dreams and ambitions. Carly recently returned from a warm-weather training camp in Australia will continue her full-time training in preparation for London 2017.
WATCH Carly now as she tells her remarkable story from spectator to star in five years.

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