Paralympic basketballer Fox eyes first GB gold

Wheelchair basketball player Ben Fox says it's "written in the stars" for ParalympicsGB to win their first gold in the sport at this year's games.

The Paris games will be extra special for the Paralympian from Swindon as his family will be there, having missed the Tokyo games due to Covid-19.

Ben was born with a rare disease called Varta syndrome, which left him with no right leg and problems with his oesophagus, heart, spine, bowel, and bladder.

His family have been alongside him each step of the way, including for all of his 38 operations.

Ben's mum Carol said she "can't put it into words" how it feels to watch him represent ParalympicsGB

Ben has "no recollection" of the operations he had in his early years, and said it was his parents that "went through" them.

"It's going to be such an honour [to] just give back something to them and hopefully bring the gold home.

"What we've achieved as a team in Great Britain wheelchair basketball men's team recently... European champions, world silver medallists, won the World [Championships] in 2018, Paralympic bronze medallists. We proved that we are one of the top teams around," Fox said.

"I don't like to tempt fate, but I think it's written in the stars. I'm so excited but I feel so nervous."

Ben's mum Carol said that to see him represent his country produces a pride "you can't put into words".

"We are going to Paris... I cannot believe that I'm actually going to be there," she added.

Someone who won't be there, however, is Ben's grandad - someone he described as being "like glue" with.

"I'm gonna be wearing my granddad's number [33]. We lost him three years ago now and he was massive in my life," Ben said.

"We always laugh: one birthday he bought me a skateboard and my mum was like, why have you bought my son who's got one leg a skateboard and he went, 'Well, why not?'.

"And that was his attitude, and I think it kind of rubbed off on me and he's the reason I wear 33, he was born in 1933."

Ben will be wearing the number 33 at the Paris Paralympics to remember his grandfather

Ben started off playing amputee football, but a chance encounter as a teenager with Great Britain's then-assistant wheelchair basketball coach Sinclair Thomas in a service station car park put him on a different track.

"[He] rolled down his window and just kind of said, 'Hey, do you want to come and play wheelchair basketball?'," Ben said.

"And I was like, 'Yeah, I'll come and give it a go, you know, not thinking anything of it. And now 16 years later, it's my full-time job.

"I'm a big believer in equality and proving to people that the fact I've got a right leg missing isn't going to stop me from doing anything."

Wheelchair basketball player Ben started off playing amputee football, but a chance encounter at a service station car park put him on a different track