I met my best friend during fresher’s week in my first year of university when he tried to get between me and free pizza, and I accidentally ran him over. He was wearing a blue t-shirt with the Cookie Monster’s face on it, so when I looked up to apologise, I came face to face with the Sesame Street character. After that we would regularly eat together and started to spend the majority of our evenings in each other’s company.

One of our favourite pass-times was to play pool while listening to music and people would often gawp at the person in a wheelchair swearing, laughing, head-banging, and occasionally potting a ball of the right colour. Mostly, people were surprised that someone disabled would want to do something so “physical”, despite the fact that every four years the Olympics are followed by a similar, quite famous competition. While pool is hardly an Olympic sport, it was still unusual to see someone like me even attempting something designed for able-bodied people.

I certainly wouldn’t say I’m anything special in terms of ability when it comes to playing pool as I almost invariably lost, but at risk of being reduced to a cliché it wasn’t the winning that mattered to me. It was that I could do something normal, and that with only a slight change in the way the pool cue was held so that the cue was supported above my right shoulder to avoid twisting my back, I could partake in the average student life. We could have a laugh together, argue over which song to play next, and revolt against the establishment by putting plastic cups down each hole to avoid having to pay for every game we had (you didn’t hear that one from me). There were numerous instances when the white ball would bounce off the table when trying to perform a trick-shot, and I would have to dodge quickly to avoid having my face re-shaped. On one occasion the ball even landed straight in my lap, and so I conveniently didn’t have to reach out onto the table for it to take my next shot.

Although my friend has since moved away we still try to see each other as often as we can, which given that he lives on the wrong side of the Pennines (a dark place we call Lancashire, which is far inferior to Yorkshire) is quite impressive. Whenever we do meet up we usually find the chance for a quick game of pool. I still have the plastic cups with me for when they’re needed…