BAYLEY William

Classification
TT7 (ipttc.org, 01 Apr 2020)

Type of Impairment
Impaired range of motion (Athlete, 27 Jul 2016)

Origin of Impairment
Congenital (Athlete, 27 Jul 2016)

Impairment Details
He was born with arthrogryposis, a congenital impairment that affects the limbs. His legs were splinted at birth, and he started undergoing operations at age three. He also had non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a form of cancer, as he was growing up. (paralympic.org, 17 Apr 2012)

General
RIO GLORY
When he won gold at the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro he received a yellow card in the TT7 singles final after jumping onto the table to celebrate his victory. "I was on match point and obviously everything was really tense but it suddenly came into my head that I hadn't decided what to do if I won. It had been a difficult match, my emotions were all over the place, I was stressed and remembered losing at London 2012. Then, the moment I won, for some reason my first thought was, 'Jump!'." (radiotimes.com, 05 Aug 2019)

STRICTLY COME DANCING
In 2019 he took part in British competition television show 'Strictly Come Dancing', but was forced to drop out of the show after suffering a knee injury in rehearsals. "We were doing the jive. It was my favourite dance. I was absolutely buzzing. I just remember jumping from the table, landing and hearing my knee pop. I looked at it and screamed. I thought I'd broken it. When the physio examined it and said it wasn't broken I went home to rest, determined to dance on Saturday, I'm used to pain. The next day the physio was there when [dance partner] Janette and I went into the rehearsal room. I did two steps and my knee dropped to the floor. The physio said, 'You're not going to be able to dance this week'. I called mum. I was saying, 'My knee's not good. I just know it. It's not going to be better next week or ever'. I was in tears." He was still undergoing rehabilitation for the injury in mid-2020. (dailymail.co.uk, 02 Nov 2019; bbc.co.uk, 24 Apr 2020)

COVID-19 FUNDRAISING
During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 he raised around 25,000 GBP for Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, England, by selling face masks. He has been treated at the hospital for arthrogryposis and cancer. "Like everyone, I've had a bit of spare time so me and my friend wondered whether we help out Great Ormond Street Hospital because they had an emergency appeal for extra funds. I had my contacts from Strictly [Come Dancing] and Vikky Gill, who is the head designer for the show, said she would donate some face masks. We thought we'd just donate a couple of hundred but we've ended up doing so many more and it's gone really well. It means everything for me to be able to give back to Great Ormond Street. I can honestly say that they saved my life so anything that I can do for them feels great." (insidethegames.biz, 22 Aug 2020)