Last June at the Mobility Roadshow, we had the privilege of talking to Nicolas Hamilton, the first disabled driver to compete in the British Touring Car Championship. Nicolas has also competed in the Renault Clio Cup and the European Touring Car Cup.
Nicolas is a hugely inspirational guy, and if you didn't know that already then it is our pleasure to introduce you to him!
Nicolas is an ambassador for scope, a charity that "exists to make this country a place where disabled people have the same opportunities as everyone else."
https://www.scope.org.uk/people/ambassadors/nicolas-hamilton
To learn more about Nicolas' incredible journey, visit his website
http://www.nicolashamilton.com/#nicolashamilton
Nicolas says it best himself though, so make sure you watch the video!
The transcript of the interview is as follows:
“If I didn’t have my condition, I wouldn’t be who I am today, you know, it’s pretty much mapped me out as a person; very, very strong minded. My parents were the people that, sort of made it all happen really. They didn’t, they didn’t wrap me up in cotton wool, they allowed me to do everything I could on my own.
I think for me the message that I’ve always tried to give to people with cerebral palsy, or any disability, is to give the message to their parents as well, because if the parents see the condition as an issue, then the child also sees it as an issue, and for me I don’t see my condition as an issue at all, and that we’re able to do whatever we want, at the same time as anybody else, but we gotta learn to fall over. Sometimes it’s good to fall over, hurt yourself, go through a little bit of pain and realise why you made a mistake. Instead of someone else helping you to your feet you gotta really figure out how you can do it. Because you know at the end of the day, everybody wants to be independent, and it’s about realising what you have is actually a gift.
As I said if I didn’t have what I had, I wouldn’t be the same person I am today so, regardless of whether it’s really tough to be, you know, disabled and, you know, different tasks and goals that you have are really hard to achieve because of your disability, there is always a way. So you know, you just gotta figure out what’s the best way for you guys to learn from and to really push forward with.
So that’s you know that’s the message I’d have so just all about, you know, about being as focussed as possible and regardless of how bad you feel, there’s always someone worse, as well. So you know you could be complaining about something and there might be a guy with no legs and no arms and now he’s the guy that really should be complaining but he isn’t, and you know so it’s all about just keeping that mind-set and doing those things yourself.”