I retired in 2006. My Fellowship focused on outdoor and adventure sports for disabled people, and integration with able-bodied people. I was interested in this topic because I had acquired a disability through an outdoor sport. Very few outdoor sports seemed open to disabled people, and there was no encouragement from the rehabilitation hierarchy in spinal injury.

I went on a course involving able-bodied people in north Wales, was a 'test pilot' for a new type of sailing dinghy for disabled people, and began organising road races for wheelchair users. Above all, I argued for their inclusion in ordinary road races in a special wheelchair section. This led to a terrific battle with the organisers of the London Marathon, described in my book Wheelchairs, Perjury and the London Marathon.

If pushed, I would claim that the wheelchair section would have come in the end anyway, but my activities brought it about sooner. This must have been noticed by government, because I found myself working on various Whitehall committees over the next 18 years. It has been a very fulfilling experience.