My England

Paralympic gold medallist Emma Wiggs loves the great outdoors – and is dedicated to helping other people with disabilities discover the beauty of the countryside.

Exploring the outdoors

I love that feeling of being alongside nature. I have a twin brother and a slightly older sister, and as children we were constantly in cagoules and wellies, enjoying the outdoors. We spent all our weekends either playing sport outside or walking the dogs where we lived in Hertfordshire. I think our mum and dad preferred us being outside so that we weren’t making a mess in the house! My brother and I went through a phase of tracking our parents – commando-crawling through the undergrowth on the dog walk, with Mum and Dad pretending they didn’t know where we were. I loved that – just being covered in mud!

Most of our childhood holidays were in Suffolk. My grandparents had a house right on the coast in Bawdsey. It was beautiful there. We spent most of our time on the beach and swimming in the North Sea, which was always a bit chilly.

When I was 18 I was paralysed after contracting a mystery virus in Australia. My arms recovered, but the nerves in my legs never did. Suddenly, a huge part of my life was no longer there – playing sports but also just being outdoors and having the freedom to go anywhere I wanted. Sadly, for wheelchair users, the countryside is still so inaccessible. I can’t just say, right, let’s go and explore. I have to plan everything so carefully.

Accessibility in the countryside

I’d love to create a tool enabling people to Google anywhere and instantly know its level of accessibility. Then, whether you’re an amputee or blind or a wheelchair user, you’d be able to tell exactly where you could go. It would be designed by people with those disabilities because they would know what parts of a walk are good for wheelchair users or what someone with a visual impairment would need to be able to do a circular countryside walk.

Simple things prevent accessibility in the outdoors. Like kissing gates and stiles – why do we still have stiles everywhere? Now, though, you can get kissing gates with RADAR – like the key you use for a disabled toilet – allowing you to open it fully. Things like that should be put in as standard, making the countryside universally accessible rather than being an add-on or token thought.

The same with campsites – rather than doing a token glamping pod for wheelchair users, let’s just make all of them accessible. My passion is helping people with disabilities rediscover the countryside. That was why the Caravan and Motorhome Club approached me to be their ambassador. They see the value of the outdoors from a mental and physical perspective, and I want to help showcase the good changes being made and highlight what still needs to be done.

I recently visited Filey Beach near Scarborough with my wife, Gemma. It was my first time on a beach in 20 years, because although I love the sea, beaches can be very inaccessible. The sand there, however, is very hard and flat so I could use my wheelchair. We walked over four miles – I felt so emotional, being able to do that.

Our ideal weekend is a walk with Bramble, our Labrador, ending at a nice place for coffee. We’re developing a bank of places with parking, good paths and good accessibility. One of our favourites is Dove Stone Reservoir in the Peak District, which has a fully accessible 2.5-mile circular walk.

Being alongside nature

Finding Paralympic sport helped fill a void. I started with sitting volleyball but moved on to paracanoe, fulfilling my passion for being outdoors in the natural environment. We train six days a week, 49 weeks of the year in Nottinghamshire. The weather is usually pretty grim! But I love that feeling of battling the elements and being alongside nature. There’s also a feeling of escapism. People walking their dogs on the side of the lake have no idea that my legs don’t work. They just see someone in a canoe working really hard on the water. It’s also a great physical challenge – we sprint over 200m, so it’s all power and speed. I’m fitter, stronger and more able now than I ever was when I was able-bodied.

Threats from many directions

On the lake we see the changing seasons – and the changing climate. I’ve been doing paracanoe since 2013, but 2024 has been our most challenging year from a weather perspective – the flooding, the frozen lake, the wind. Even in the summer I was training in jackets and long tops rather than vests and leggings.

We live in a little village called Diseworth, close to Derbyshire and all that beautiful Peak District. We can walk out of our front door and be in countryside, but that is under threat from a proposal to build a new freeport. The development will be twice the size of our village and wipe out all the green space and farmland between us and East Midlands Airport. That’s a huge area of habitat and nature that is going to be lost and concreted over, so we are trying to fight it. It will increase the flood risk too – and we already get serious flooding in Diseworth.

Canoeist for life

I know I will be a canoeist for life. It will always offer me a way of exploring the countryside. Even when I’m old I’ll be able to go in a Canadian canoe with someone else doing the hard work! Canoeing gives such a sense of freedom – all my teammates would agree. To be able to leave your wheelchair or your prosthetic legs on the side of the lake and paddle off, to immerse yourself in that world of water and nature – it’s such a special feeling.

About the author

Emma Wiggs MBE is a triple Paralympic gold medal winner and 12-time World Champion paracanoeist.