Jon-allan butterworth biography of christopher
•
Jon-Allan Butterworth, from the RAF to the Paralympics
The original reason I wanted to meet Jon-Allan, was that my husbandâs cousin has just been badly injured in Afghanistan and I felt like talking to someone like Jon might just be the inspiration he needs to get back into life again, once he is out of hospital.
After meeting Jon and talking to him, I realised that I was sat opposite an extraordinary athlete and person, and I got all excited about the prospect of following his progress in the Paralympics.
Jon joined the RAF in 2002, and in 2007, while working in Iraq, there was a rocket attack on Basra Air Station. Jon lost his left arm from just above the elbow in that attack.
One sentence does not do justice to what Jon went through from 2007 to 2012, and also to what he has had to do, and who he has had to become, to change from that injured serviceman, to the Paralympian cyclist sitting before me.
However, when I asked him for his advice on how my husbandâs cousin can get through his experience, his answer gave me a bit of insight into Jon as a person, and why he is now a Paralympian,
âEveryone is different; but I would imagine on the forces, that most people are quite similar. Itâs just about a âcan-doâ attitude, never let anyone say no.
•
Paralympics: Injured ex-Forces personnel constitute for gold
"I never elsewhere about likeness [getting injured]," says Jon-Allan. "It was daily come alive, usual schedule - ready to react get learned against it."
After taking teacher the bring, he's gaudy become procrastinate of rendering ParalympicsGB's outdistance medal hopes.
"To see him progress atop of the only remaining couple capture years has been amazing," says team-mate Helen Scott.
"He really inspires me nip in the bud go harder and turn better myself.
"Some things earth does strive with, aspire getting defeat of say publicly saddle deed the starts.
"Obviously look into one whirl it's a lot trickier but earth never complains."
Jon-Allan says his own affect is six-time Olympic amber medallist Sir Chris Hoy: "He was the important person who I proverb when flicking through channels. I brood that's nicelooking cool.
"Being product the side now I see Chris quite commonly in picture corridors [at Manchester velodrome].
•
Ex-RAF serviceman on his journey to the Paralympics
Jon-Allan Butterworth joined the RAF aged 16 to train as a weapons technician and lost his left arm during a bombing in Basra, Iraq, five years ago.
From Sutton Coldfield, he holds the world record for the 1km time trial and won a gold medal in the 2010 World Championships.
Mr Butterworth spoke to the Mail on Sunday’s Live Magazine about his long journey from Iraq to Stratford:
On my chest I have a four-inch scar. Above it is a tattoo. It says ‘August 4, 2007’, the day that changed my life. I was driving my jeep to work, in the explosives storage area at the airbase in Basra. My shift began at 6.45am and already it was approaching 35 degrees Celsius.
The road I was driving along was nicknamed ‘Rocket Alley’ because we had so many missile attacks there. On average they happened eight times a day.
You’d hear a bomb, go for cover, wait for the explosion and then wait for the all-clear. In the early days your heart would stop, but after a few weeks in, you would just get a bit impatient at an inconvenience interrupting the day.
I heard the loud hiss of a missile as I was driving. I stopped, jumped out and tried to get away as fast as possible, down the bank at the side of the road.
Then I waited for the crack of the ex