Bolton Paralympic silver medallist Harry Brown hopes the success of so many members of Team GB in Paris can inspire the next generation and show there are no bounds to what can be achieved.

The 30-year-old helped the men’s wheelchair basketball team to the podium, narrowly missing out on gold with a 73-69 defeat in the first final for a GB team since 1996.

Naturally, there are mixed emotions for the Yorkshireman who has made Bolton his home with wife Courtney, from the town, and their two young children after coming so close to gold.

But after bronze in Rio and Tokyo, he admits it is a step towards the top of the podium.

More importantly for Brown, though, is the opportunity to show youngsters dreaming of emulating the Paralympics GB heroes who returned a huge haul of medals that nothing is impossible

He attended Bolton Parish Church Primary School this week to do just that.

Speaking to The Bolton News, he said: “One thing we did as a country post London 2012 was amazing to try and build on a successful Games.

“I didn’t realise at the time the amount of extra exposure Para sport got from those Games.

“Moving forward from that we have, as a country, built on it and hopefully France will have the same impact.

“The amount of people who attended, the amount of TV exposure it got it can only be good for the sport.

“The big thing as Paralympics GB was to start the ‘Equal Play’ drive.

“From that, we need to get some form of exposure into schools to get more kids involved.

“I was lucky enough that some guy who worked at Asda saw me in a wheelchair and took me along to play when I was younger.

“Without him, it may have been five or 10 years before I started playing who knows?

There has to be a pathway. If you can get chairs into schools, get the exposure for the sport.

“I popped into a school in Bolton this week where there was one girl in a chair just eager to play sport but didn’t know where to go. Luckily enough, I knew a contact at her local club, and she is now talking to them.

“So all it takes is that one bit of exposure and in 10 years’ time I could be the one getting a picture with her and a medal instead of vice versa.

“One of the guys on our team, Pete, said one of the first games of basketball he watched was in London and that inspired him. He tried it out and look where he is now.

“All it takes is that one little spark. I remember being in a caravan park when Beijing was going on and it just so happened there was a 10-second clip on TV as I turned it on. I immediately knew that was what I wanted to do. That is all it can take.”

Halifax-born Brown has been in a wheelchair since a very early age after meningitis as a child meant he lost both legs.

But sport was always his passion and after trying out a variety including wheelchair tennis and rugby, he plumped for basketball and at 16 he became the youngest player to represent the GB men’s senior team when he made his debut at the 2011 BT Paralympic Cup.

He continued: “People say I am weird when I say I count it as a blessing that I have been in a chair since the age of two.

“One of my mates I used to play with for years broke his back at 32 and then started basketball six years later. He never made a GB team because so much later in life he took him so much time to adjust to a new life never mine how to then excel in sport.

“Being in a chair from such a young age, it is my life. The wheels are not an accessory, they are my legs.

“I don’t see myself as a super hero - it is just my life. To some people it is, and I understand that.

“But you see some people in the athletes village from maybe lesser countries who have not got the equipment we have - then you feel lucky to have what you have.

“You see others doing stuff I think is amazing as well.

“One of the girls in Paralympics GB has no arms or legs and is a multi-gold medallist in swimming - so there are lots of levels of superhuman achievement.

“I am just happy to be part of such a great team and experience what I did in Paris.

“I don’t really know why basketball. I don’t know if it was because it was one of the first sports I got involved in, in a wheelchair. Maybe there is that emotional attachment to it.

“My first playing wheelchair was funded by the Lord Taverners Association and I was extremely lucky with that. It lasted me four years before I grew out of it.

“Then, you need to be the best so need the best chair which at the time was £4,500 - a lot of money without funding.

“Luckily for me, one of my old coaches Malcolm Kielty ran charity fundraisers to get a pot of money together to get somewhere near that.

“I am still going strong at 30. There is something about it that keeps bringing me back. I will keep going until my arms don’t work!

“My first Games was in Rio and when we played against Brazil, the crowd was packed out shouting and screaming for their team. But not many other games of ours were busy - not many locals wanted to watch GB v Algeria in a morning.

“Then, Tokyo was empty because it had to be for covid.

“This was the first time I had been at a Games where the venue, the Bercy Arena which held 15,000 people was virtually full every game. I think the average for the whole games was 14,500.

“Even for the seventh/eighth play-off it was still rammed and it was pretty special to be honest.”

So is Brown already casting an eye to the next Games in Los Angeles in 2028?

“LA is definitely in my thoughts. I think a few of the lads may have called it a day had we won gold, but now we have something to aim for in four years’ time.

“After that final everyone was like, right let’s get training and get ready for LA.

“It would be nice to get some payback on the Americans and in their own back yard!”

* To find out more about getting involved in wheelchair basketball visit the website at britishwheelchairbasketball.co.uk. For more on Paralympics GB and disability sport, visit paralympics.org.uk.