John McFall Biography 23.7.2023

Hello and welcome to the Disabled People's Project which showcases biographies of people with disabilities doing great things in life. Each episode or post is a different biography lasting less than three minutes. You can see my project on other platforms in the comments section. Today's biography is John McFaul. John McFaul had a road accident on a gap year in Thailand where he had a leg amputated and wears a prosthetic leg. John had a successful sporting career in the Paralympics as a sprinter. John is a Paralympic sprinter and the world's first ever parastronaut. John was selected by the European Space Agency in 2022 to become the first ever person with disabilities to train to go into space. Luckily I was at one of the UK's largest disability events, NADEX, in March this year where Dr Irene DiGuglio from King's College, University London and MBE Mike Miller-Smith, chief executive of charity Airability, which helps people with disabilities learn how to fly aeroplanes. They are conducting research into making space travel more diverse disabilities as currently there are strict regulations of the type of disability allowed to be considered for space travel. But we cannot forget this huge achievement that it's 2022 yet we have only just had the first person with disabilities be vetted for space travel last year. Hopefully this will continue and diversify in the future. The written version of this biography can be found on my Facebook profile on the platform in the comments section with links to John McFall's social media links, Airability, European Space Centre, photo credits and my article from NADEX earlier this year. Thank you for listening. Like and follow if you want more.