Quadriplegic Countdown contestant hopes to inspire

Martin Wild said he hoped to see more quadriplegic contestants on Countdown

The first quadriplegic contestant to appear on TV quiz Countdown hopes he will inspire others like him to apply to play.

Martin Wild, from Whitchurch in Shropshire, appeared on the long-running, Channel 4 word and numbers game on Wednesday.

The player, who was paralysed in an accident at home in 2018, said his participation showed "you can achieve things and you're not completely washed up just because of your injury".

He added: "Hopefully that will lead to others perhaps applying and appearing on the show as well."

'Pressure of the cameras'

Mr Wild visited the TV studio before filming to discuss what adaptions were needed.

He said he was not able to write down answers before declaring them because he had no functional use of his hands.

Instead, he said, he had to store all the information in his mind and that was not always easy.

Mr Wild described how he might see a seven-letter word in the letters selection, and could then go hunting for an eight or nine-letter word, but "by the time the clock's finished, I've forgotten what my seven-letter word is".

"It's so easy to do that with the pressure of the cameras and obviously the competition itself which you want to win," he explained.

"It becomes far more difficult to store that information and retain it, so I found that quite difficult - [it was] much more of a challenge than I thought it would be."

After he narrowly missed out on winning, Mr Wild said he was happy he had taken part because he had always wanted to appear on Countdown, adding: "It does show to others that it can be done."