Wheelchair basketball player Gaz Choudhry was made an amputee when he was just 10 years old, after finding out he had osteosarcoma in his knee.
Since then, the now 39-year-old has achieved much in his career, including winning four European Championships, a historic world title and two Paralympic bronze medals.
And, incredibly, he has gone on to star in a TV series alongside Meryl Streep and Kit Harrington and in a hit theatre play about the Grenfell Tower disaster.
“I was super sporty before, just an active kid who couldn’t sit still,” says Choudhry, who has retired internationally but still plays for the London Titans.
“Once that disability hit, I was really fortunate in terms of my family… they didn’t restrict me. They still allowed me to be brave and they encouraged that.”
Awarded an MBE in 2021, Choudhry is one of very few athletes with a South Asian background to have been in the Olympics or Paralympics for Team GB. And he attributes much of his success to luck.
He said: “I try and look at my experience of all the things I was lucky with. At the time, these barriers that were being lifted weren’t things I had to overcome.
“I had a single mum. It was difficult to get to and from training and all that stuff. And there were these incredible people, that through their generosity, overcame those systemic problems that would have stopped me from accessing the sport.”
Choudhry was awarded an MBE in 2021 for services to wheelchair basketball
As a young boy, his inspiration was Joe Jayaratne, one of the first South Asian players to represent Great Britain.
“He was incredible, and I looked up to him without realising I’m looking up to him because he’s a brown man,” says Choudhry.
“Just having those natural role models lifted my spirit in a way where it didn’t allow me to fall.”
Born in Karachi before moving to Ealing at 10, a wheelchair basketball roadshow was what made Choudhry fall in love.
He said: “It gave me this sense of freedom and dimension of movement… I loved getting in the chair and just being free again.
“I was super active. I ran, cycled and did all different sports. Once I lost my leg, there was this door that got shut of this freedom of movement. And it was completely given back to me, which is quite paradoxical really.”
However, Choudhry now has a new-found passion for something he never even expected.
“I’ve always been interested in storytelling but never acting as much. We were preparing for the Tokyo Games and were in these strict lockdown camps,” explains Choudhry of a moment that changed his life.
“To this day, I can’t remember who sent me the self-tape, but I did one because I thought it would be cool to do one afternoon!”
Choudhry took part in his first play at the National Theatre in London, called Grenfell: In the Words of Survivors
What the basketball player did not know was that he had auditioned and got the role for a TV show called Extrapolations, a series about climate change with an A-list cast.
He said: “It made me discover another passion I didn’t think I had. I tried to apply the things that had made me successful as an athlete in preparation for it, but the thing I find most interesting is the difference.”
Last year, the Paralympian did his first play at the National Theatre in London, called Grenfell: In the Words of Survivors and he believed it was one of his most meaningful things he will ever do in his life.
He added: “It was an incredible experience. Being able to give a voice to the people of Grenfell and speak on that absolute tragedy was really powerful and meaningful.
“I spoke about sport being salvation whereas I feel storytelling and acting is redemption. It’s nothing to solve. And I love that difference.”
South Asian Heritage Month runs from July 18 to August 17 this year. Sky Sports News ‘Free to be Me’ series embraces individual narratives and diverse experiences of those of South Asian heritage.