After Great Ormond Street, golds are not so important
Bayley puts gold bid in perspective after fight to beat cancer
WILL BAYLEY spent most of his childhood in Great Ormond Street hospital, first having treatment for arthrogryposis, a rare muscle-wastage disorder which affects his movement in all four limbs, and Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a blood cancer which almost killed him.
But the experience of having people ‘write him off,’ as he puts it, has made the table tennis player determined to strike gold at the Rio Paralympics, where he begins his quest for glory in the team event on Wednesday.
Bayley, who is the Class 7 world No1 in singles, admits that he was devastated after losing in the final at London 2012 to German rival Jochen Wollmert. But recalling memories of painful cancer treatment when he was just seven gives him a rare sense of perspective.
‘I had many operations on my feet when I was growing up,’ Bayley told The Mail On Sunday, ‘and then I was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin lymphoma i n my neck and had chemotherapy for two years.
‘I was into all sports but couldn’t play contact sport any more because I had a Hickman line carrying drugs around my body which could have got ripped out with any physicality.
‘My grandma bought me a table tennis table which was something that I could do and enjoy and the rest was history.
‘My brother Tom, who’s a salesman now, used to be a semi-professional footballer despite having a disability in his arm. He was three years older and table tennis was the only sport I could beat him in, so I thought I’d carry on.’
When he was well enough he would play table tennis with some of the other child patients at the hospital between having treatment. During the course of two years, Bayley had many heartening experiences at Great Ormond Street and built close friendships.
‘It was a difficult time for a seven year old but there were a lot of good times, too, because their spirit there is amazing,’ he said.
‘It’s uplifting, you think that you’re going to feel down going to a place like that but you actually feel very positive. You see people fighting really hard and it puts things like this into perspective. It’s not the be all and end all if you don’t win a gold medal when you’ve come through something like that.
‘We went to school and scouts together in the hospital and you become a massive family, you’re enjoying it and I almost didn’t want to leave when I was getting better.
‘But there were also terrible moments when your friends were not in their beds any more,’ added Bayley, ‘There was one guy, Dom, and I would always go into his room to play on his computer because I didn’t have one in my room and I just remember saying to my mum: “Where’s Dom, where’s he gone?” and this happened a few times.
‘I knew that I might not pull through. I was on a trial with new drugs that had never been used on humans before so I have to go back to Great Ormond Street twice a year because they don't know how I’ll react to that in the future It’s tough to go back because you see kids with no hair but that was me and a I didn’t want anyone to feel sorry for me in that situation, I just wanted people to be themselves and treat me like normal and that’s what I want now as a Paralympic athlete.’
Bayley, a big Arsenal fan, admits He is not the most naturally-gifted player
in the world but his work ethic, he believes, marks him out as something special.
He trains with the rest of the Great Britain table tennis squad at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield and will regularly stay behind after training to work on his serve, which he believes is one of the most damaging shots in the world.
‘I practise six hours a day just training but I am there for 12 hours a day, doing gym sessions twice a day. I have hit millions of balls since London, I know I’ve put in the hard yards. I am probably one of the 20 best players in the world based on ability alone but I manage to grind my way through and get results.’
There has not been much time for the 28-year-old to look for love with such a punishing daily training regime but earlier this year he appeared on the Channel 4 dating show First Dates, where he was matched with Jessica, a paediatric nurse.
‘My parents watched it and said it was good but I couldn’t watch it,’ he said. ‘It’s bad enough just hearing yourself speak let alone to watch yourself on a date. We said we’d meet up again but it’s been so busy so it’s been difficult but we’ll see how it goes.’
But before he goes in search of love again, Bayley has to find that elusive Paralympic gold medal.