People say ‘fair play’ or tell me sympathy that’s the worst...’

afraid to ask but the problem is that I have a lot of sympathy. They do things for me and I don’t like that as I’m very capable I just need some guidance.

“When I used to teach I couldn’t hear the school bell and had to rely on a 11-year-old.”

Like Jake, technology has helped Jonny in both his career and everyday life.

When speaking via Skype he can connect the Bluetooth speaker on his phone to his hearing aid – also eliminating the need for earphones.

He said: “I had a problem with my Sky TV once and they had an accessible phone line where you could Skype them and had someone using sign language. With HSBC you can Skype them if there’s a problem.

“Otherwise I often have to get my partner to phone for me. Once I left my glasses in a taxi and they had no email address and I couldn’t phone them.

“My mum has always helped with a lot of things – my mortgage company don’t have any accessible lines so she will do the phoning. With the GP you can’t book appointments online – you have to phone.”

In the world of theatre technology has also allowed techniques such as captioning or subtitles to become more versatile by making them available through phones.

Jonny said: “The problem with captioning is you can’t allocate seats so you can’t always see the right side of the stage. With mobile captioning it’s great because a lot of people don’t like having subtitles on the screen because they think it’s distracting.”

Slowly Tony learned to redesign different aspects of his life – from adapting his car for hand controls instead of pedals to redesigning his kitchen to ensure everything can lower to wheelchair-height.

He said: “I sat down with a kitchen engineer and planned my kitchen around me. If you came to my house you wouldn’t know it was adapted for me.”

But while some things can be bought, others are a longer process of rebuilding from scratch.

Tony said: “The easiest way to think of it is like a newborn baby. You start all over making new mental files – if you move that way or fall you remember not to do it again.

“I was cleaning the bath once and burnt my foot since I didn’t realise it was under the hot tap but I recorded that and will never do that again.

“I have leg braces so I’ve learnt to walk with straight knees. It took me three and a half hours to change the curtains and curtain poles but it gave me so much satisfaction.”

He added: “I try to help as many people as I can. One of the boys at tennis has the same level injuries as me and I can give him tips. I’ve designed ways for people to get in and out of their chair. They don’t teach you that in hospital. It just makes you feel more normal.”

After leaving the hospital unable to lift even a kilo in weight, Tony was a shadow of his former self in 2005.

To get to his current fitness level he now trains in the gym four times a week using specially-adapted routes.

For Tony the biggest issues lie with factors he can’t control.

He said: “When people are food shopping, sometimes people are so wrapped up with what they are doing they don’t notice me. One woman crushed my hand between my wheelchair and the trolley and didn’t even say sorry.

“People will try and dash around you because they think you’ll hold up the queue.

“I went to the Christmas market in Manchester which was hard work. It’s not worth the hassle.” Social events can also be tricky. Tony said: “In bars I tend to find a quiet area. People usually look for a gap in the crowd and go there and don’t see I’m there.

“One person ended up with a drink over us both.”

With “skin like a rhino” the tennis champion isn’t fazed by what other people say. Instead he has discovered the hard way that within relationships he can be his own worst enemy.

Tony added: “One of my girlfriends never knew I was in a wheelchair. We would go for drives or things like that and she wanted to come to my house and I kept coming up with excuses so I thought the best thing was to end it.

“At the end of it she turned to me and said: ‘Your wheelchair is more of a problem for you than it is for me’.”