Preston: Wheelchair motocross gave boy his life back – mum

Tomas got his first NHS wheelchair in 2019 due to his Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a condition that affects his connective tissues.

He had been taken out of of school at eight due to the condition, and not being able to leave the house meant he was “literally not seeing anyone”, Jo said.

“I think we’d have agreed to anything at the time to get him out, his mental health was on the floor.”

Watching backflip videos of Aaron ‘Wheelz’ Fotheringham inspired Tomas, who took his wheelchair to Graystone Action Sports Academy in Salford.

Jo said he “loved it, and it made such a difference” to his mental health.

“He loved it, it made such a difference, as his mental health was so poor prior,” Jo said.

Coaches at the centre, who knew little about the sport, then start watching videos online to work out how to offer him better training.

“We found a community in the skatepark that’s really accepting”, Jo said.

After years of hard work and a rise through the ranks, the Lancashire teenager went on to beat Fotheringham, the US competitor who had pioneered the sport in the early 2000s.

“My crazy idiot smashed it,” Jo said of Tomas’s victory in California in 2023.