I felt emotionally broken after my horrendous week thinking that was it for me, which was then followed by the relief of hearing the words there is no cancer.

I knew it was important to rest and recover but I also was made very aware of time whilst sat in oncology. It made me reflect on how I spend the time I have been given.

My first thought was to drive back to the French Alps and go skiing again. I had purchased some special disability equipment that I thought might help me and was keen to try it out.

I feel like my life goes in massive swings of extreme highs and extreme lows. It hits my nervous system hard, but life is for living, right?

I feel I have to push out of my comfort zone and chase my dreams.

So, a 13-hour drive and I wake to a snowy Alpe D’Huez and this time no worry of waiting for CT scans or results. I can just enjoy the mountains.

It is hard to blend in, though, especially when you are 6ft 4in and paralysed. I have come to terms with people staring at me and I see it just as curiosity and sometimes a great opportunity to share lessons from oncology so people can maybe learn from my suffering to make the most of their time in the mountains.

I have learned to embrace my disability to see it as an ability to help others.

It has given me the opportunity to talk with others here on ski lifts that normally I might not have spoken with. As I ride the chairlifts I think about the word “inclusion”.

I am no different to anyone else here, we are all skiing, albeit my technique is just a bit different.

In social psychology there is a theory that we gain a sense of identity around how we think others perceive us. It is known as the looking glass theory, created by the American sociologist Charles Horton Cooley in 1902.

It is something I have become very aware of, especially after I was referred to as a cripple not that long ago.

As I rode up one of the chairlifts in France, I sat deep in thought about the Cooley theory and how I create a sense of self based on my perception of what people see when they see me.

I have found nothing but support and nice people here on the mountain, all keen to help me and make the skiing experience as nice as possible. I feel like another skier here.

Paralympic runner Richard Whitehead wrote recently around para-athletes and how they are seen in the eyes of the public. After several appeared on reality TV shows, he worried that their sporting abilities had been overshadowed by their TV appearances.

This you could argue is what Cooley spoke about in 1902 around how we create our sense of self.

Many para-athletes fight for inclusion and some devote their life to such causes.

I always hoped that London 2012 meant that more disabled children would get access to sport but I am not sure this is the case.

One athlete who arguably achieved more off the field than he did on it, was American soccer player Eli Wolff, who sadly passed away this week at the age of 45.

After suffering a stroke during surgery as a child, Wolff was left partially paralysed. However, this did not hold him back in pursuing his dreams of becoming a sportsman and an advocate for a more inclusive world. Eli represented the United States Men’s National Team with Cerebral Palsy from 1995 to 2004.

After retiring from sport, Wolff spoke around the world on how we can create a more inclusive world using sport. His vision inspired many debates and challenged people’s thinking and perception around self-identity and how we categorise people.

He believed that there should not be a distinction between Paralympians and Olympians and that we should all be known as Olympians who just compete in different categ-ories but are all aligned under the same philosophy of what the world perceives as the Olympic athlete.

His philosophy was, “We are all athletes”.

Without conversation and debate it is hard to create change, and Wolff certainly created debate around inclusion.

He worked to change perception around disability in sport to one of empowerment not pity.

He had a vision of sport for the future where able-bodied people got into a wheelchair to play wheelchair basketball. And for those without visual impairments to play blind football by simply just wearing a blindfold, encouraging inclusion and not separating humans by giving them a tag.

Rest in Peace Eli and know that your work is your legacy.