It can be harder to meet people when you are out in a really crowded pub or bar. You can sort of find yourself stuck in a corner where the least amount of people will trip over you. But you can always get your friends to start the conversation with the cute guy on the other side of the room and make him come over to you.

My spinal cord injury didn’t stop me meeting new people but I think that, at first, it did leave me a bit reticent about getting to know them. I was still going out, socialising, mixing with people, but I was a bit stand backish. Then, when I started work, it was harder to date anyway – you’re always busy, there’s all sorts of other stuff going on, and it can be hard enough just to see your friends, let alone spend time with someone totally new.

There’s a real body image issue for women now. You want to be attractive, dress well, do your hair and make-up; you want to look your best when you go out. That’s no different to what any woman feels. But it’s very easy to fall into the trap of thinking, ‘they won’t find me attractive because I’m in a chair’. You have those thoughts from time to time, and we all need to counter that. We’ve all got to have self-belief. I’ve always been most successful at meeting guys when I’m not actually on the pull anyway, when I’m just being myself. If you look and come across as comfortable and confident then you are much more approachable.

A couple of friends wanted to get me to do speed dating, but that’s not my sort of thing. I did contemplate internet dating and I might have gone down that route if I’d not met Paul.

We met on holiday in South Africa. It’s a cliché, but he was our tour guide. There was obviously something between us, and I put up with lots of jibing from my friend, but nothing happened during the holiday. When he followed it up after I got home, though, we decided to go for it. Long distance relationships are never easy, but the distance also meant that I had to give him the lowdown on spinal cord injury very early on. If I was going to go and visit, I had to be open about everything. It would have been easy to have avoided that conversation, to put it off as too embarrassing, but Paul made it all very easy. I guess if he was going to have an issue then we wouldn’t have lasted anyway.

We’re very happily married. It was a big white – and wet! – wedding, with lots of fun, friends and booze.

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