Title: Ade NHM Audio
Interviewee/s: Ade Adepitan
Interview Date:
Interviewer:
Transcriber note:
Q: To start with can you give us a brief introduction about yourself?
A: Okay. My name is Ade Adepitan. I am a Paralympic wheelchair basketball medallist, a TV presenter, travel journalist, children’s book author, new father, and also I grew up in Newham.
Q: So you don’t do very much, then.
A: [Both laugh] No, no, no, I – I’ve got to work on things, haven’t I? I’ve got to work on it.
Q: [Both laugh] Yeah, you need to pull yourself up a bit. Nice to meet another Newham resident. I’m also in Newham. I’m in – up in Manor Park, so it’s a real pleasure to meet you in that respect too. Let’s get on to the questions. So if you can give us kind of as long answers as you can, that would be great.
A: Okay.
Q: The first one is, how did you find your interest in sports and who and what inspired you?
A: So I was always passionate about sports. Growing up in Plaistow and then going to school, I went to a school called Credon Primary School in Upton Park, which I think is now used as a teacher training centre. I’m not sure whether it’s still – the building is still there or whether they’ve changed it. But because we were so close to the Boleyn Ground, West Ham’s old ground on Green Street, yeah, everyone in the school was football crazy. They were all mad about football and so yeah, it infected me. And I think the – my first experience with football with West Ham is because originally, ’cos I like to buck the trend, I decided to be an Arsenal fan because everyone in east London was West Ham and I thought, yeah, I’m going to go – I’m going to be different. But 1980, West Ham won the FA Cup [recording issue 0:01:59]. My next door neighbour’s mum told him – he was a little bit older than me – and she said to him that he had to take me out to – onto the Boleyn – onto the Barking Road as West Ham were carrying the cup on the open-top bus. And so I remember, I must have been seven or eight at the time, going with my next door neighbour who’s – this teenager begrudgingly having to take me along, going onto the Barking Road, seeing the open-top bus with Trevor Brooking holding the FA Cup, all the street celebrations. And yeah, that was it, I was hooked, I became a West Ham fan, I was passionate about sport. And then from there on I went on to, um, it get – I got introduced to basketball sort of later on, probably about five or six years – no, it wasn’t, it was less than that. I was probably about thirteen when I was introduced to wheelchair basketball by some physiotherapist who spotted me as I was being raced through the streets sort of – of Newham, on Pragel Street I think it was. I was being raced down in a Tesco shopping trolley by my mates. And these physios who were based at Elizabeth Fry School in Canning Town, at the time they’d set up a sports club called the Newham Rollers which was a wheelchair basketball club. And it was all about not just providing a sports club for kids with disabilities but it was also about using sport to teach disabled kids how to be independent and how to be more confident. And I remember them pulling up beside me in this beat-up old bus and van, they were hippy-looking people and they looked out and they said, “You’re Ade, aren’t you?” They recognised me. I looked at my mates and I thought, who are these people? And they said, “How would you like to try wheelchair basketball?” And initially I was not interested but they convinced me to go to Stoke Mandeville in Buckinghamshire and that’s when I saw some members of the Great Britain wheelchair basketball team playing. And from that moment on I was hooked on wheelchair basketball.
Q: An amazing story and a great, you know, insight into the inspiration. Go back to Newham a bit more. Can you tell us about how life was growing up in the borough with a disability, and what problems did you face particularly?
A: Yeah. God, it seems like such a long time ago [laughs]. So we came over, um, I came over with my parents in 1976 and we moved to Plaistow, east London, we lived on Parsons Road which is just off the Barking Road. We were sandwiched in between Samson Street and Pragel Street, so there was the Samson Street Hospital. It was a cul-de-sac. At the top of our road was Old Street. So I’m just giving you a picture of where we lived. And we were near Southern Road Playing Fields as well. And what was it like growing up with a disability? First of all, it – it’s hard for me to kind of think because I knew – I didn’t know anything other than having a disability, so I had nothing to compare it with. I knew I was always – I knew I was different straightaway. Yeah, um, I – my parents brought me over because of the fact of my disability and they felt that I would have more opportunities in the UK, there was a much better medical infrastructure for someone like myself. But I knew it was really, really tough for them because initially in the first few years they weren’t allowed to access NHS so they had to pay for all of my NHS treatment. So they did two or three jobs each in order to pay for callipers, all of the medical apparatus that I had to wear in the appointments. And I used to go to – I remember going onto the Barking Road waiting for the No.5 bus to go to Great Ormond Street Hospital and that’s where I would get treatment in the hospital, in Great Ormond Street. But in Newham I guess our biggest challenge that – or obstacle that my parents faced was schools. And that was because my parents really wanted me to go to a mainstream school and back then if you had a disability you were supposed to go to a school with kids with disabilities. And so my parents had a [recording issue 0:07:00] quite a long probably legal battle. I didn’t totally understand what was going on at the time ’cos I was about seven or eight years old, with Newham Education Authority about what school I would be allowed to go to. Fortunately, my parents were both teachers from Nigeria so I was homeschooled for almost a year whilst they looked for a school that would agree to take me in, and also whilst they battled with the education authority to say that it was my right to go to a mainstream school. And in the end it was chosen that I’d go to Credon Primary School and yeah, there were – [laughs] look, this is late ’70s, early ’80s. Nowhere was geared up for someone like me. Nothing was geared up. You know, the school had loads of stairs, there were no ramps, there was no lifts, and it was just basically I had to work out, I had to improvise and find a way, you know, to deal with getting around the school. I didn’t really have much support. I think the teachers were good because they started – it was a learning process for them. I was the first child with a disability to go to their school and I might – may even have been the first child with a disability to be allowed to go to a mainstream school in the whole of Newham back in ’79 I think this would have been. And so yeah, they were – and this was to go full time, ’cos I think there might have been some kids that had been going part time. And so they were learning. They were learning. And I think after the first term they moved all of my lessons downstairs. So the school was on three floors and for the first term I was running up and down the stairs [laughs] with my callipers. I slid down the bannisters. I think they gave me special permission to be allowed to slide down the bannisters [laughs] ’cos it was quicker than me trying to hop down the stairs with my callipers. They started to reassess the school trips that they went on. There were certain trips that they thought I wasn’t – I mean initially every answer to every question that I asked was no. You know, they thought I wouldn’t be able to handle playtimes so I would have to stay inside. They thought I wouldn’t be able to go on school trips so I didn’t go on school trips initially. But I think within a term they realised, you know, this kid was just like any other kid. I would always find a way. And the other kids in – my other friends at school, they were willing to help me. They carried me upstairs, carried my bags and yeah, I think we set a blueprint and we opened a lot of teachers’ eyes and kind of probably changed the perspective of people in education in Newham. And I also remember one of my great teachers in Credon. Her name was Mrs Singleton at the time, er, Miss Singleton at the time. She became Miss [Sampford, Lesley Sampford 00:10:15]. She helped with my swimming lessons ’cos I was really – I really struggled with swimming. And she created a float which I could attach to my leg which allowed my leg to stay up and gave me this extra buoyancy and helped me with swimming so I was able to swim my width and get my width ribbon for the first time. So yeah, it was a rollercoaster. There was a lot of hard times, tough times, you know, when I got bullied, I got expelled [laughs] from school because I got into a fights because kids used to call me peg leg and stuff. And it was rocky and turbulent for I’d say probably the first year. But then after that I think things were fine, you know, and it was just that initial period of people understanding me, and me understanding the system as an eight-year-old [laughs].
[00:11:19]
Q: That’s a brilliant story. I loved to hear it. It’s amazing. Moving on quickly, so you talked about your parents coming from Nigeria to give you a better life and the opportunities and that how they had to pay for so much of your treatment, at least in the first few years.
A: Hmm-hmm.
Q: So I want to talk a little bit about like finances. Obviously, you know like Newham is not the richest borough. In fact it might be one of the poorest, if not the poorest. How, um, you know, we’re all in the same sort of boat. How did your – you know, how financially secure were you? I know they were teachers but how did – did that affect your progress in any way, your like financial background?
A: I don’t know whether it affected [recording becomes distorted] my progress. It probably did. But yeah, we were poor and it was hard for my parents. My parents both trained as teachers. My dad was on the verge of becoming a headmaster at a school in Lagos. And they gave that all up to come to the UK for me and for my older sister who was eventually brought over as well. So my older sister, she’s got Down’s syndrome and so they had two disabled kids that they had to bring up. And yeah, it was difficult, you know. My parents essentially went from middle class, lower middle class in Nigeria to becoming working class I the UK. And I think that’s often what happens with economic migrants. You downgrade a class when you come over to UK. They knew there was – that it was really going to be difficult if they wanted to become teachers and to teach in the UK. In all – [sighs] I mean in – for me, I was actually really glad that they didn’t become teachers in London because for them to be teachers in east London at that time when I was growing up would have been really hard ’cos there was a lot of racial discrimination. There was a lot of overt racism. There was a lot of people who didn’t understand what they were doing was racist. And my parents being African, speaking with very strong African accents, I mean their English was great but their accents were strong. It would have made it really, really difficult for them and difficult for me. So, you know, they retrained. My dad retrained as an accountant but he couldn’t get any work as an accountant. No one was going to hire an African black guy to be an accountant in the ’80s or ’70s. So my parents worked as, you know, my – they worked as cleaners, security guards. My mum worked for – at a – in the canteen I think at Ford, at Dagenham Ford. They worked at Tate & Lyle and we lived in a council flat, a council house. It was, yeah, it was hard. I mean we had this sofa that was so worn that if you sat on it the wooden bits would stick out, the carpet was eaten through, we didn’t have double glazing for years, we never got, um, we got our first TV in ’84. It was a black and white TV from a guy called Terry in a shop called Terryvision on Green Street [laughs]. I used to, er, my parents used to send me to the local shop to buy paraffin to fill up our paraffin heaters and we’d stand around this paraffin heater ’cos we didn’t have central heating. So yeah, it was difficult. And there was a lot of school trips that we didn’t – I didn’t go on because we just couldn’t afford. We couldn’t afford to. But also my parents were very proud so they wouldn’t apply for the benefits that they probably should have applied for, because they felt that they shouldn’t take handouts and stuff. So yeah, that was – it was tough. It was tough watching how difficult it was for them and also frustrating for me because I was really embarrassed to invite friends’ home. You know, I’d been to friends’ houses and I saw my friends’ houses and I was like, oh my God, look at the – this house, look at their – they’ve got their own room and they’ve got a colour TV and they’ve got central heating; they’ve got a big garden. We’ve got none of those things. And, you know, all my friends always wanted to come over and, you know, my parents always wanted to have parties and to have them around and I always really felt embarrassed. Because I’d think they’d see what their houses were like and then come to my house and just think, what’s this? But fortunately, you know, kids don’t see those things, you know, they just want to hang out with their friends. So yeah, it was really difficult growing up in terms of finances.
Q: Thank you. Great answer again. Okay, we’ve got the last two questions.
A: Hmm-hmm.
Q: Again, going to your, you know, growing up, did you feel that you had enough support? I mean you talked a little about it but do you think you had sufficient support services available to you as you were growing up? Or what more would you have liked to have seen?
A: Yeah, I – [sighs] I think, um, I mean there was probably certain support that my parents might have accessed that I didn’t know about but I’m not sure. I think because what we were trying to do was so new, I don’t think anyone knew how to deal with us, you know, the fact that I was in a mainstream school. Perhaps what I needed was a liaison officer, someone, some type of social worker who could come into the school and be an intermediary between myself, my parents and the school, and to find out what I needed, what the school needed and what our family needed. But whereas what we actually got was just us making it up as we went along. We were just – just making it up and I just dealt with things. And teachers had to sort of in their heads improvise and work out how they could include me in lessons, in PE lessons and stuff like that, you know, the – I – there were certain games that I wanted to do which were easier for me because of my disability. And, you know, you just needed – you had to be fortunate to have a teacher that was receptive, that had an open mind, that was able to sort of like say, yes, okay, we’ll try this to make it more inclusive. I mean what I would say is I think the schools that I went to, Lister School, Credon School which is now Southern Road Primary School, there probably are echoes of when I was there as a kid. And the – I think they may have learnt some lessons from back then, of me when I was a kid. I don’t know how many, I don’t know what – what it’s like for a disabled child now in Newham but it was definitely the Wild West and definitely brand new. And if it wasn’t for these two physios, [Owen and Kay 00:19:27], who set up their wheelchair basketball club, I think that I wouldn’t have had real proper access to sport. You know, they were a game changer. They were pioneers. And I don’t know whether many other kids back then in the ’70s and ’80s anywhere else in the country would have had access to people who were as incredible as those two in terms of what they were doing.
[00:20:00]
Q: That does sound quite incredible. And maybe –
A: I mean we created a culture, um, and what it – what happened with the Newham Rollers is we suddenly had a group of us, similar ages, ten, fifteen of us all with disabilities who had joint experiences, you know, and we learnt from each other. We taught each other where were the best places to go to in Newham, you know, how do we get up and down stairs, we taught each other wheelchair skills. You know, we supported each other and we sort of learnt from our own experiences. I remember we wanted to get an accessible bus in Newham because there wasn’t an accessible bus in Newham. The 101 was one of the main bus routes. So I don’t know if the 101 is still there. So the 101 was inaccessible and what we did is we blockaded, fifteen of us, High Street North in our wheelchairs. And I don’t know if you can go back and find some old issues of the Newham Recorder. And we held up the whole street and with banners saying that we wanted that bus route to be made accessible. And they changed the 101 because of us so we were very much pioneers. We were learning on the hoof, trying to do stuff and change stuff off our own backs, you know, inspired by these physios who were quite hippy and out there and all of that. And yeah, it was exciting, it was frustrating, but it was really interesting times.
Q: I’m going to have to look that up. Honestly, I can imagine like that bus down High Street North, I’d love to see if there are any photographs.
A: Oh, look. The people were beeping and there was some – like it was a mixture of anger because we stopped it but then people would come out and speak to us and understand what we were talking about. And I’m proud to say – not many people talk about it – but that bus is accessible because of us. That route is accessible because of us.
Q: Brilliant, lovely. Okay, last question.
A: Hmm-hmm.
Q: What would you say to youngsters with disabilities who want to get involved in sports today?
A: I would say, absolutely go for it. You know, there’s probably no better time if you have a disability to get involved in disability sport. You know, the profile of the Paralympics, the opportunities that there are out there and what sport in itself brings to you. You know, whether you become an elite athlete or whether you just become an everyday athlete that plays for your local club, you know, what it does for you socially, what it does for you mentally, your mental health, your confidence, um, so much of that. I – so much of everything that I’ve achieved in my life, you know, the cornerstone of, or the main ingredients and catalyst for why I’ve achieved everything that I’ve achieved in my life is sport.
Q: Well, if that’s not an inspiration to get involved, I don’t know what is. Ade, thank you so much for your time. Sorry for –
A: No worries.
Q: You know, the start, but we got it done. And this will be really useful for the Heritage Month and a real inspiration for our youngsters, especially with disabilities. Cheers, thank you.
A: Thank you. No, thank you, guys. Cheers, take care.
Q: Bye. See you later, bye.
A: Bye.
[END OF RECORDING – 00:23:56]
