#136 Driving Ambitions with Alistair Patrick Heselton

Alistair played for Wycombe Wanderers FC as a schoolboy and was then approached and signed by QPR - he played in the youth and reserves from the age of 17. During his time there he had a loan spell with Oldham Athletic scoring freely in the U19s. He suffered a torn cruciate ligament which halted his progress and after an 11-month recovery he never regained his normal self and decided to pursue a career in Quantity Surveying whilst playing semi-professionally with Northwood F.C in the Ryman Premier Division. He was then offered the opportunity to play professional football again with the Dutch 1st Division side Helmond Sport. He returned home and played in the Nationwide Conference South with Bishops Stortford. After playing for a few semi-professional sides his career was supposedly ended in 2006 while playing at Wingate and Finchley, following a car crash in which his best friend died. Alistair was in a coma for 2 months and was told he may not walk again so he thought he would never play football again. This also put a stop to his Quantity Surveying degree and having always liked cars and styling them he changed career and acquired a Totally Dynamic Franchise. Having not played football for 4 years he was contacted by the F.A about disability football but specifically CP football (for Cerebral Palsy or brain injury sufferers). He had always kept myself fit and so reluctantly started playing again. Since then Alistair has played in the CPISRA World Championships for England and represented ParalympicsGB at London 2012,  contributing with 3 assists and scoring in the playoff game against Argentina.  You can connect with Alistair through his Twitter.  For more information about Mind Set Game connect with us on Facebook @mindsetgamepodcast For more information about James Roberts (the host of the podcast), visit fitamputee.co.uk and connect with me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram