Paralympic rower thought she would never be loved

A Paralympic rower said there was a time in her life when she thought being queer and with a disability meant she would never be loved.

Lauren Rowles, the first woman to win a rowing gold at three Paralympic games, also talked about how she struggled to focus at school due to undiagnosed ADHD, but sport gave her a chance to feel like "I was the best".

The 27-year-old from Bromsgrove told the BBC's LGBT Sport Podcast it could seem like she was "on a mad one" while growing up, due to her undiagnosed condition, and her mother was often called into school.

"But when I got out on the football pitch, I ran, it didn't matter where you placed me, whatever sport it was, I just felt like I was like the best," she said.

Rowles also discussed how she suddenly developed transverse myelitis at the age of 13, waking up one morning to find herself paralysed from the waist down.

Transverse myelitis is a rare neurological condition caused by inflammation of the spinal cord, according to the NHS.

She was initially "ashamed" to be in a wheelchair, she said, especially as she was at the start of adolescence and already feeling self-conscious.

But a turning point came when her mother convinced her reluctant daughter to take a trip to the 2012 Paralympics in London.

"[It was] one of the best decisions she ever made in my life," Rowles said, adding "that day changed my life."

Rowles came out as queer around the time of the Covid pandemic, she said in the podcast, which launched last month and is hosted by former boxer Nicola Adams.

She is engaged to Paralympic basketball player Jude Hamer, who gave birth to their son Noah in 2024.

"There was a time in my life where I thought: 'I'm never gonna be loved'," she said, explaining that she felt daunted about navigating life as someone who was queer and also had a disability.

And yet five years after coming out, she is engaged to a woman and in a loving relationship, and she has also become a mother, she said.

"I'm so blessed that I have that now," she added.

• You can listen to the full episode of the LGBT Sport Podcast on BBC Sounds

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