I was black, I was disabled – people weren’t used to seeing someone like me
Paralympic basketball hero Ade Adepitan has already inspired thousands – now he’s keen to bring his motivational message to the next generation. He talks to HANNAH STEPHENSON
WITH his wedding to singer-songwriter fiancée Elle Exxe to look forward to Ade Adepitan has an exciting summer ahead.
The pair were originally meant to tie the knot last year, but postponed when Elle was offered the chance to perform at V Festival.
“The church was booked, the reception venue was booked and then she got the call to appear at V Festival. She said she’d turn it down but I just said to her, ‘You’ll have it on your mind for the rest of your life that you could have done V Fest and what it might have meant for your career, so I would rather not have that’,” says Ade.
“If the wedding clashed with a basketball event, I would want to be able to do it. And we were always going to get married.”
They got engaged two years ago – and popping the question was the most romantic gesture of his life, he recalls.
“We went to Lake Como and I got the staff at the hotel to put the ring on a table by the lake outside the hotel and arrange candles along the path leading to the table. When Elle saw the ring, she went nuts and then she said to me, ‘I don’t care if you’re in a wheelchair, you’re going to have to get down on your knee’, which I did.”
The big day is in August, and although he’s keen to have children, Ade says they’re not in a huge hurry. “At the moment, we’re really busy. We’ve bought a house and we’re trying to do the house up, there’s Elle’s career as she tries to make it in one of the toughest industries, and I’m doing what I’m doing. But I would really love to have kids, it would be amazing.”
And there’s a lot to celebrate already. Ade has encountered polio and prejudice over the years, been trolled on Twitter, and put himself through numerous gruelling challenges which would have defeated many people – but he’s in a much better place now than when his parents brought him to the UK from Nigeria aged three, fearing he would never thrive in his homeland after contracting polio at 15 months, which left him unable to use his left leg.
As well as his success as a wheelchair basketball player, Ade’s career has seen him be a sports pundit, a presenter on Children In Need, front various documentaries and cover the Winter Paralympics on Channel 4 earlier this year.
Now, he is reaching out to the younger generation with his new series of children’s books, Ade’s Amazing Ade-Ventures, based on his own life, to show that you can overcome the greatest of challenges, no matter who you are.
The first book, Battle Of The Cyborg Cat, sees a young Ade coming to the UK, trying to fit in, and finding sport.
“I don’t remember any books when I was growing up, where the main protagonist is black and is disabled and talks about the things that I am trying to talk about.
“It’s not specifically for black and disabled people – it’s for every kid who has ever felt like an outsider, who’s ever felt different, and for them to look at it and think, ‘You know what? It’s OK to be different. You can still be successful, lead a cool life and have great friends’.”
He recalls that when his own family settled in Plaistow, East London, it was a difficult time.
“It was a different time, it was late-1970s, early-1980s London, and I wouldn’t say a lot of the people there were racist, but I would just say they weren’t used to seeing someone like me.
“I was black, I was disabled, I spoke with a strong Nigerian accent. People called me the ‘n’ word, although my parents got it a lot more than me and I think as a child, sometimes those things gloss over you.
“But I remember many times my mum coming home from work crying at some of the words people had called her and the abuse she had taken. When you see your parents upset, as a child it’s really tough.”
Moving to the UK was a hugely difficult decision – they had to leave Ade’s older sister, Omoyile, who has Down’s syndrome, with relatives in Nigeria until they could afford to fly her over some years later.
Sport was his saviour, he admits, gaining him acceptance and friendship among his peers.
“The moment they saw that I could catch a ball and had great reflexes, it discombobulates, because the last thing you expect to see is a kid on calipers, who is walking awkwardly, being agile.
“I broke the mould, changing the way kids thought, and suddenly everyone wanted to be my mate because they could see that I was good at sport.”
He went on to win bronze with the GB basketball team at the 2004 Summer Paralympics and bang the drum for disabled sport, presenting the Invictus Games and meeting the new Duke of Sussex, Prince Harry, and the Duke of Cambridge on numerous occasions.
There is still prejudice, he says, but people are less overt about it now, with the advent of social media.
“People are less likely to abuse you to your face. I do hope we are a more tolerant society than we used to be, but there is still a long way to go.”
His professional sporting days may be over, but his broadcasting career is on the rise – Ade has just signed up to do a four-part BBC2 travelogue series about Africa, taking in around 15 countries – but in the meantime, wedding preparations are in full swing.
“We’re sorting out the guest list at the moment. I’ve just been having this ongoing battle with my mum who wants to invite half of Nigeria to the wedding,” he says, grinning.
“I said to her, ‘I’m going to give to you all of these people’s names for the 10-second test’. I’ll go through your list, and if I don’t know who they are and you can’t tell or show me in 10 seconds who they are, they’re not coming’. It’s been a massive battle, trust me.”
Ade’s Amazing Ade-ventures: Battle Of The Cyborg Cat by Ade Adepitan is out now, published by Studio Press, priced £5.99.