Published on: 3rd August 2021
With the Summer Paralympics fast approaching, we picked up with current support worker at Councillor Lane, Stockport and former Paralympic swimmer – Dan Pepper to
listen to his fascinating story.
“I started swimming as we lived next to a canal so it was more for safety than anything else, it turned out I was actually quite good and I joined a club. At age 12, a coach in Stockport encouraged me to work towards what’s called the ‘S14 category’ in Paralympic swimming, a category for people with an intellectual learning impairment.
By the age of 14, I was a double world champion and at 15 I qualified for the 2004 Summer Paralympics in Athens. I’d been training, I had the kit, I was ready to go – and they cancelled my category. It was a bit of a scandal and it carried on for many years, I missed Beijing but thankfully my category was reinstated for London and I got to represent my country at our home Paralympic games.
It was an amazing experience, but by that point I was past the peak in my career so I didn’t get to compete at Paralympic level during the period when I was untouchable.
Post-swimming, I’d always been interested in physical and mental health and how improving both can really help people. I’ve always been aware of how much work there was (and is) still to be done, so when I saw the vacancy in 2019 I applied and I’ve been here ever since.
I do the physical side of support, encouraging people to lose weight and be physically healthy. I do a lot of talking about nutrition and building up their confidence to get out and about. I think it’s important to see it from their perspective and understand their barriers, which my learning impairment helps with.
I am still involved with swimming too, I’m head coach for Marple Swimming Club and I coach the Stockport Metro team. Hopefully I can help someone else get that feeling of competing at the highest level too.”