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A promising footballer who went on to represent Team GB at the Paralympic Games, Alistair Patrick-Heselton’s story is one of perseverance and determination.
Starting out at Wycombe Wanderers as a schoolboy, Alistair showed great potential from an early age, and was soon snapped up by Queen’s Park Rangers. The forward was prolific at Under-17 level, and featured a number of times of the reserve side before suffering a severe cruciate ligament injury while on loan at Oldham Athletic.
After stints at a number of different clubs, Alistair opted to combine playing semi-professional football with studying for a career in quantity surveying, turning out for Isthmian League outfit Wingate & Finchley. However, in 2006, the striker was a passenger in car accident which claimed the life of his best friend and also former professional footballer, fracturing his skull and spending two months in a coma.
He later resumed consciousness but was informed that he may never walk again, seemingly ending his football career. Determined to recover and enjoy life, four years on, Alistair was contacted by England and Team GB Paralympic football squad and convinced the former prospect of trying out for the CP team, consisting of players with cerebral palsy and other brain injuries.
Since making his Team GB debut at the 2011 CPISRA Championships for England, Alistair became a shining star for his country, playing a crucial role in the lead-up to the 2012 BT Paralympic World Cup final. He led the fightback in the final against Brazil, pulling back England’s second goal in a courageous 4-2 defeat. Alistair went on to compete at London 2012 scoring against Argentina.
When speaking to inspire, I add humour to my story of determination in what can be the toughest challenges we face. I aim to captivate the audience in a journey and allow them reflect on moments they feel are difficult while feeling energised in how they can approach challenges that may be ahead of them.
After having sustained a potentially career ending knee injury at a young age, I was able to stay focused on the path to recovery and not be distracted by the mental low. This mind set assisted me years later, when waking from a coma with a fractured skull my body was not what it was. I went in search of trying to be the “old me” but thats when I realised that I had a perfect opportunity to stop limiting my beliefs and go for an even stronger version of myself. In this talk I explore the practice of being resilient and how through the repetition of being uncomfortable we can increase our tolerance expand our thresholds it allows the audience to consider what resilient looks like to them on both a professional and personal level.
It’s well documented in life things tend to get better when we “plan” them and goal setting is no different. We often set goals but do we look at the process goals that go with them? When we look back after having achieved something, though analysis we can actually see the steps that went into making it all possible. Therefore I always mention the importance of breaking down our GOAL into a chain of process goals. This talk is to empower individuals to take ownership of their actions and detail how we can break down processes and even work backwards to make tasks achievable allowing them to document, challenge and celebrate achievement.
When we are faced with adversity it is easy to dwell on what went wrong and why it happened, I have always been one to meet a challenge with instant action (even if it is planning the remedy) to be able to overcome it. Making a list of what we “should” do can be the 1st mistake. After Traumatic Brain Injury I was told things I “should” do in order to recover. Although I could use the support and knowledge from those around me, only I could action it, therefore to benefit ourselves the list of things I should do had to become a list of what I MUST do! This talk is to empower individuals to take ownership of their actions and allow them to feel comfortable in accepting the consequences of their actions.
The participants thoroughly enjoyed having Alistair be involved in their County Final, and that he interacted so well with the children was great! He spoke to them on a level that they understood and gave them advice to take away.
Alistair was a great speaker and really inspired the students. He had a great speech and presentation pre planned.
Inspirational Speakers has been providing high profile keynote speakers and entertainers for over 25 years.
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