FIONA DEIGHAN told of her immense pride at seeing her son Luke competing against the world’s best wheelchair racers in Switzerland in May.

The 17-year-old from Johnstone was taking part in his first competition on foreign soil at the Daniela Jutzeler Memorial in Arbon, close to the German border.

Luke was not overawed by the occasion, despite only taking the sport up two years ago, and recorded several personal best times.

Fiona was beaming with pride after seeing Luke, who was born with Spina Bifida and fluid on the brain, rub shoulders with seasoned veterans at the star studded event.

She said: “Luke is classified as T54, which is purely down to his disability, but that classification is extremely competitive.

“The competition is really fierce, especially now he is doing international events. In Switzerland he was racing against the fastest athletes in the world.

“But at the same time Luke is only 17 so hopefully he has a lot of improvement to come.

“We’re happy with where he finished in Switzerland. He finished around halfway in the field in one race, which some people might think isn’t great but it is his first international event and he only took up the sport two years ago.”

Luke is set to step up his training from three times per week to eight times per week as he looks to improve enough to challenge for a place at the Commonwealth Games.

Fiona believes the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games might come too soon for her son, but says he will aim to represent Scotland at the Durban games in 2022.

However now that the competitions are coming thick and fast for Luke, his mum admits finances will dictate which tournaments Luke can take part in with no funding help or sponsorship so far in Luke’s career.

She said: “Until now we’ve been focusing on Luke being able to enjoy it because he’s so young. But now he’s 17 he is at the stage where he wants to be competing.

“The competitions are all over the place and finances only go so far so we are having to pick and choose which ones are more important.

“The Commonwealth Games coming up would be a big ask for him to progress to that level in time, I’ll be saying to him to concentrate on the next Commonwealth Games in 2022.

“He doesn’t get disappointed, he just loves competing and if he gets a personal best he is happy.”

Luke’s condition causes problems with his memory and he is reliant on his mum and family to get around.

Despite that, he has always excelled in sport and represented Scotland at wheelchair basketball before taking up wheelchair racing.

Fiona explained: “Luke was born with Spina Bifida and fluid on the brain. He’s a full-time wheelchair user. I need to take him everywhere, he can get himself dressed and do other small things.

“His memory is quite bad due to the fluid on the brain, so he constantly needs reminded of things.

“He’s been at college for a year which teaches him life skills like how to handle money and apply for jobs. He’s hoping to go on to do sport coaching but we need to investigate what that entails because he’s obviously limited as to what he can do physically.

“The fluid on his brain means he is quite slow at a lot of things and the only thing he has really grasped well has been sport.

“Every sport he has tried he has been good at it.”

While clubs often get the support of the local business community, Luke would like to increase his chances of sporting success by getting a sponsor to help him realise his ambitions and reduce the burden.

If your business, company or group could support him in any way then please get in touch with Fiona at fionadeighan79@gmail.com.