Claire Taggart (Boccia | Women's Individual - BC2): [Extra]Ordinary Athletes

If anybody asks me about my job, and I say I compete in the sport of Boccia, 99% of people have no idea what I'm talking about. I have a condition called Dystonia. I developed my disability in my late teenage years. I don't know where I would be, independence-wise if I didn't know the people who I know through Boccia. I'd like to be in a world where if I said my job is I'm a Boccia athlete, Somebody would say, ‘Oh yeah, I know what that sport is. It's a Paralympic sport.’ I want kids in school to be playing Boccia, whether they're disabled or non-disabled, because it's a sport for everybody. I love living in Larne. I can't see myself living anywhere else. How close we can be to the sea, and being outdoors. The thing that the club and the community aspect of the club has done is really just to empower the people to see that there is better. I think if you ask most people who live in Larne they're really proud to be from Larne. I'm quite a stubborn individual. If you tell me I can't do something, I’m either going to find a way to do it to prove you wrong, or I'm just going to do it to my own detriment. I think that finding my community and finding my support network through Boccia has really been something that even to this day, that I still rely on.