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Jack Hunter-Spivey

Originally from Liverpool and brought up in Widnes, Jack was born with cerebral palsy and was blind and deaf until he was nine months old. After going to a youth club for deprived children which provided an evening meal and an opportunity to socialise with other children, He then discovered his passion for table tennis at the early age of 10.

When Jack first started playing he had a really difficult time accepting his disability and would even try and walk a few steps and even started to play standing up clinging to the table. After a frustrating few months of hard work from Jack and the people he looked up to, he finally embraced playing table tennis in his chair.

Shortly after Jack then heard London won the Olympic and Paralympic bid in 2005. 10 year old Jack instantly found his dream of becoming a Paralympian and decided that he wanted to play in the Paralympic Games ever since.

Although he just missed out on selection for London, he experienced the atmosphere of the Games through the Paralympic Inspiration Programme which made him even more determined to achieve his dream of becoming a Paralympian.

Jack was invited to his first GB Development camp at the age of 11. After 6 years of hard work and determination, Jack then finally advanced to the world Class performance programme which is every athletes dream. Jack then knew it was all or nothing and moved to Sheffield leaving his family and friends behind.

In 2015 it was the qualifying year for the Rio Paralympics. Jack knew he had to up his world ranking in order to get into the top 10 to gain a place in Rio. After a long season with many battles on and off the table it came down to the Beijing open. Jack played against the odds and managed to take the last set against the world number 7 giving him enough ranking  points to qualify.

During the period of Jacks life before he found his love of table tennis right through to the crucial stages of development for GB, Jack has faced many adversities. While growing up his family suffered from great financial hardship. From not being able to afford the £2 session at the local table tennis club to having to hide in the toilets on the train all the way from liverpool to Sheffield all in the name of his main goal to be a Paralympian.

As you may or may not know, as many as 1 in 4 people suffer with mental health problems. The GB team noticed something wasn’t quite right. Jack had a breakdown and period of 2 weeks in his life which he doesn’t remember. Jack will now openly say the he would break down crying, he didn’t wash or wash his clothes, his flat was a mess and generally lost his grip on life to the extent of trying to take his own life twice. Jack is one of the first active athletes to come out with having depression. This has brought many lows to jacks life but now after having the help of friends, family and clinical help Jack now talks freely of this and uses this as his strength to continuously drive for what he believes in.

Through all this along with table tennis, Jack uses his personal experience with mental health issues as another string to his bow and often visits schools, clubs and organisations delivering professional motivational speeches and presentations including his journey with both table tennis and mental health issues.

Jack has now been part of the Performance programme for 5 years and is now the best wheelchair table tennis player Great Britain has to offer and hasn’t lost a match in GB in 5 years! He currently travels all over the world, has won numerous international medals and is the first British player to sign in the top division in the German Bundesliga (the best league in the world)

Jack has even won the US open 2017 in Las Vegas, In which he managed to beat the current world champion and former Paralympic champion! He has now firmly established himself as top 10 in the world with the ever nearing view of being world number 1.