Jo Butterfield: Rio 2016 gold medallist aims for wheelchair curling success
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Butterfield aims to become the first Briton to win summer and winter Paralympic golds
For Jo Butterfield, 28 January 2011 is a date that she will never forget.
She went into an operating theatre to have a small tumour removed from her spinal cord - an operation that she was told had a 0.01% chance of her being left paralysed.
Prior to the procedure she was living an ordinary life, going to the gym, working as a civil servant at the Ministry of Defence and expecting to be out of work for a couple of months to recover from the operation before getting on with life.
But things did not go as expected for the then 31-year-old.
"I woke up and I knew straight away that I was paralysed," she told BBC Scotland's Amy Irons. "There were doctors around my bed and they asked me to move my arms, which I did, and then they asked me to move my legs.
"I thought I had, but my legs hadn't moved.
"I realised things were bad and it was a big shock. But I also had a sense of peace that I would be all right. What had happened had happened and at that moment and every moment since, I felt like I had a decision to make.
"I couldn't change what had happened, I was in a wheelchair and paralysed from the chest down. I wasn't going to be able to fix that, but I could still live my life."
Since then, sport has been integral to Butterfield with rehabilitation leading to a stellar athletics career with European, world and Paralympic gold in the club throw - an event where athletes throw a wooden skittle-like club.
Now the 43-year-old has switched her attention to wheelchair curling and will be part of the Scotland team at the World Championships in Vancouver, which start on Saturday and run until 12 March.
Butterfield, who was born in Yorkshire but has been based in Scotland for the past 25 years, is used to making a big impact in a short time - less than five months after her first club competition, she won the European title before world glory in 2015 and becoming Paralympic champion at Rio 2016.
But her progress was slowed by a shoulder issue and then her event was taken out of the programme for the 2024 Paris Games.
Wheelchair curling has given her the chance to continue her elite sporting journey and she wants to make the most of her new opportunity.
"I had never curled before so it has all been a whirlwind, but I am enjoying it and to be selected for my first Worlds after six months is something I am proud of," she says.
"It has been a challenge but more of a mental one than a physical one and also I am now playing team sport at a high level for the first time when I had previously been an individual.
"I feel like I am at the start of a journey again, which is quite exciting, but that goal of wanting to be the best and achieve at a Paralympics is still there.
"I have come into wheelchair curling as a summer Paralympic champion and I would like to leave the sport, whenever that might be, as a winter Paralympic champion."
Butterfield will line up in the team event in Canada alongside Beijing Winter Paralympians Meggan Dawson-Farrell, Gregor Ewan and Hugh Nibloe as well as World Championship silver medallist Gary Logan. Charlotte McKenna and David Melrose will compete in the mixed doubles for Scotland with Stewart Pimblett and Rosemary Lenton representing England.
The event is the first opportunity to accrue qualification points for the 2026 Winter Paralympics in Milan-Cortina and Butterfield believes her sporting experience can be an advantage.
"I hope my experience of competing at the top level can help the others in the team," she says.
"That sort of environment is normal for me and I am comfortable in it. I get excited at the prospect of a major championship and I hope that can help others with less experience to feel more comfortable.
"It is early days for us as a team. I am brand new into the sport and we are still developing as a team so I think a gold medal might be beyond us but I want to finish the tournament knowing we have done our best and done what we have done in our training."
Butterfield acknowledges that her experiences have played a big part in making her the athlete and person she is now - 12 years after her life was changed.
"I am very grateful for all the opportunities I have had since my operation and I wouldn't be a Paralympic champion if it wasn't for that," she says.
"Am I thankful I am in a wheelchair? Not really, because to be honest, it sucks a lot of the time. But I am very thankful for the experiences, the people I have met, the places I have been and what I have achieved.
"Whether it is athletics or curling, losing doesn't affect me because of that overwhelming feeling I am all right and I have lots in my life.
"The joy I get from achieving is brilliant but it isn't the be-all and end-all to me, and that has helped me be the best I can.
"I feel invincible. I have stepped on one of life's banana skins, it isn't the nicest thing to happen but I am all right and if I can go through that experience and feel like that, then there isn't much to fear."
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