[Music] Hello I’m Marcus Railton and this is the Scotscare podcast. Scotscare is the only charity dedicated to helping disadvantaged Scots in London through a range of support including mental health therapy, financial grants, advocacy, sheltered housing for older Scots, job coaching, social events, befriending and support for Children and Families. The Charity’s been running for 400 years to help break the cycle of poverty experienced by some Scots.
In this series of the scotscare podcast I’ll be chatting to celebrities and supporters of the charity that have also forged a life in the capital away from home and about the ups and downs that can bring.
Scotscare: supporting Scots away from home in London.
Joining me for a chat today is Paisley lad and professional para table tennis player Martin Perry for the last
four years he has been ranked in the top 25 in the world he’s been the US Open Champion twice the British champ
champion and twice European team champion he’s also won 50 International medals representing Great Britain
however the thing to note is that Martin Perry’s point of difference is that he
has no hands and only one leg Scots care
supporting Scots away from home in London
hi Martin Hi Marcus thanks for doing this no thank you for having me I’m really looking
forward to the chat well we’re meant to do it this morning won’t we but um you had to go and get your hair done
yeah all all uh all one of them that was on top of my head this morning I had to go and get it trimmed well see you you
know got the full full shaved head look which you and I think you really suit it but I think I’d look like some kind of
hairy billion but was there a point where you just said because I’ve seen I’ve seen photos of you playing table
tennis with with hair and was there a point where you said right it’s coming off now yeah I mean to be honest if you
if you go if you can find photos even further back when I was a child I had a really bad receiving Airline
um I was not follicly blessed whatsoever um so you know I I’ve always had
terrible terrible hair uh to be honest and yeah of course I kept it for as long as I could but I took the plunge at the
repo the age of 21 and that’s when I started you know deciding to to shave my head and and went down that route and
and I like it you know I just said I think I think I look better with a shaved head um but I have to have the beard
otherwise I just look like a thumb well you sit out there’s a place in my
wherever we live just outside London there’s a place at the bottom of my road there’s a there’s a turkey Spar bus and
I always go there then my wife goes oh they cut it too short they cut it too short but you know for 20 quid they’ll
cut my hair and they do the thing where they flame your ears have you ever had that done yeah oh yeah yeah so the barber that I went to for for years and
years when I lived back home in Paisley it was um Moroccan Barber and and he did the
same he flamed your ears and the first time we did it I got such a free I thought you didn’t attack me or something because he came out with this
big flaming stick and started waving it at my face and then lo and behold I had silky smoothie it was after that but I
was a bit upset because I didn’t realize I had hair ears until that point so yeah that’s the moment of reality when they
say would you like your eyebrows done sir then you go oh crap so there really is yeah got these big hairy eyebrows
yeah no it’s a kind of burning smell that kind of puts me off but the result was great
let me ask you first of all how does how does table tennis work is it like football do you have a season and an off
season um well for us uh we have the ability to basically play all year round um but of
course you know you prioritize a season as such um so usually the para season as it were
usually kicks off in March um It’s usually the Italian Open obviously that varies sometimes you know
year on year and um you know different different tournaments
sometimes open the calendar but it tends to be uh March for us as the Italian Open and that runs all the way through until
about December time but you know there’s always able-bodied tournaments that we can we can compete in as part athletes
we have that privilege that we can play everybody dan Potter yeah um you know so if I wanted to I could be playing all
year round but you know that causes burnout and things like that so we try and go from like March until around
about sort of September October time uh this this season it’s a little bit later because we’ve got the world
championships in November uh they’re usually a little bit earlier in the year um so so we started up a little bit
later this year and sort of started main competing in May this year with this
Slovenian open um and that gives us sort of you know that sort of six seven eight month window of competing and then we
get a few months off to have pre-season and you know work on a lot of Fitness stuff and footwork
um so yeah I guess I guess yes and no we do have a season and we don’t because they said you know we get that privilege of being able to play able-bodied
competitions as well as part of it yeah do you like your down time do do you get to like in a normal year into December
and think I just want to put it back down I like my downtime for for like a brief
period and then I get really really bored and antsy and I just want to go and do something so my wife hates it
because she can see it coming like as the days go on that I’ve not trained or went to the gym or something like that
she’s like you’re ready to explore then I’m like yeah I just got so much energy that I you know I want to go train I
want to go to the gym and I suppose the gym is the easy one because you know I can do that as Leisure as well as my job
um but obviously training it’s um it’s sometimes really difficult for me to say no to someone that asked me if I want to
train you know so this week um just just previous was really difficult for me because I really wanted
a train but I actually injured my back and I wasn’t able to train him for like seven eight days
um I’ll only go back into training sort of last night and and that was really difficult for me because I felt like it had been taken out of my control yeah
but I would of course so eager to play and I couldn’t do it you know so downtime for me uh doesn’t come very
easy because I just I just want to keep going I suppose you’ve got to be disciplined haven’t you I mean as a professional
athlete you can’t say do you know what I’ll just go and do a little bit of training if you’ve hurt your back or hurt another part or hurt your shoulder
or something you’ve got to make sure you let it recover yeah exactly you know and and that’s the
thing you know as as a professional athlete you’re always thought you know you can do more you can push through you can you can go and achieve all these
things um because you know you can draw inspiration from other athletes who will say the exact same you know I didn’t
stop training I trained 24 7. I did this I did that and it’s like but the reality
is that they didn’t and and you don’t you know it’s it’s very difficult to to say no to training at times you know but
as you said if you’ve got an injury like I did last week um you know I had casino because otherwise it would have been so
detrimental to the rest of this season for me you you mentioned there that you grew up in Paisley but you’re another
Scott that has ventured South where do you base now hey I’m actually in Sunny Dumbarton at
the moment uh me and my wife have got flat and Dumbarton but I was based in Sheffield for uh just over five years
uh that was to train with the um British party table tennis Squad full time but
since since covert happened you know I think a lot of people’s lives changed um and especially the perspective on
life so uh myself and a few other athletes I’ve been spending a lot more time home uh at our local clubs where we
sort of first began our table tennis Journeys and you know for various different reasons for family and and
things like that and of course table tennis but you know I think um with with covered it it changed my perspective on
on a lot of things and and I wanted to move home and thankfully you know the the team have supported that to no end
and they’ve been great with me and you know don’t get me wrong I still have to go down at least one week a month uh
where we do sort of like these camps where the entire Squad comes together and we’ll train as a unit but outside of
that you know they trust me to to train as much as possible back home and to get a good setup back home and uh that’s
definitely very different from me you know going from having five years of structured nine to five Training
um where every minute of every day was mapped out for me um to now obviously having to do all that on my own was was a bit of a
bit of a change you know because I I wasn’t quite used to it you know people always say oh you know athletes get
spoiled and they get everything for them and they’re absolutely right we do you know so to go from that structure uh of
having as I said like a nine to five setup uh to know obviously my training day is
is all over the place at the moment just because you know being the only professional Scottish table tennis
player um you know people have people have jobs uh that I have to now work around their
schedules so I train first thing in the morning sometimes and then like last thing at night um and if someone’s got you know space
during the afternoon I’ll go train then as well you know so it’s it’s definitely a different schedule that’s for sure was
it so you moved it 2017 and then you got married 2018. so you must have spent a lot of
time you must have a very understanding wife you must have spent a lot of time shooting back and forward from Sheffield
to Dumbarton and back again yeah so you know Siobhan’s absolutely fantastic she’s so understanding of what I learned
and supports it tremendously um for a little while um Siobhan lived
in Sheffield with me but then uh her job pulled her back home uh when she was
working in Glasgow so you know it was it was difficult don’t get me wrong you know because I was training Monday to
Friday and then getting in the car and and driving back sort of Friday evening to then come back down to Sheffield on a
Sunday and I was you know I was really mentally and physically very tired and we did that for about
uh probably the first year and a half of being married and then you know not long
after that covered hit so um you know I thankfully obviously you know just about
moved up in time because um we got we got like a two-week summer uh sorry not summer breaks it was in it
was in March sort of like winter break sort of pre-season thing before it all kicked off properly and we got breaking
up and I went home for those sort of two weeks and um and then covered her and I’ve pretty much you know not left in
terms of this being my base now back home but yeah those first of 18 months of being married was was really
difficult because for four and a half five days of the week we didn’t see each other um but maybe that’s the key to longevity
I don’t know well you know what if sometimes I’ve got friends who live apart work apart and they’ve got great
marriages but you know horses for courses I suppose isn’t it yeah but you’re right yeah I think covert was a
leveler for a lot of us where we kind of realized what was important in our lives and and what we wanted and you know for
a lot of people out there doing jobs it’s not like a lifelong passion and it’s just not oh so this for a game of
soldiers I’m I’m going to change my life Scots care supporting Scots away from home in
London can you explain to us
what congenital limb losses and how or why that happens
um so congenital limb loss is when you are born um well for me actually so congenital
limb loss and deformity um so that is you know it happens in the womb before you’re born and when you are
born there will be you know some birthday effects with regards to your limbs so for myself I don’t have any
hands my right arms stops sort of mid forearm just a little bit shy of of my
wrist and my left arm stops uh at my elbow my left leg uh currently stops just at
my knee joint uh when I was younger I had a little bit more of a leg but due to some complications the lower half of
my left leg got removed when I was 10 and my right leg is uh fully formed so
you know one out of four is not bad I’ll take it but um yeah for what we could determine
uh there is no sort of cause or reason behind congenital limb loss and
deformity it’s just simply one of those things that happens uh and it just so happens that it happened to me
um but to be honest I I find myself incredibly lucky you know to have been born with no hands on one leg
I find it such a gift because I’ve not had to go through anything traumatic you know I’ve not had a serious illness or
injury or you know some form of terrible accident that’s resulted in me being you
know disabled and um you know for that I’m I’m incredibly thankful and grateful for and it’s allowed me to to just grow
up and and live life and learn how to do things my own way just like anyone else
would you know and um I don’t really feel restricted by my disability at all to be honest everything I read about you
is very inspiring I’ll show my kids you’re playing table tennis and actually my Rafe my nine-year-old I was showing
him there was a bit and um your perspective your prosthetic uh leg your Limb and he went oh is this guy
a real Terminator and I went I’ve seen them play table tennis this guy is a Terminator you know
and I love I love the innocence of kids well he didn’t see a disability in any way he just went wow that is so cool but
was it tough growing up in Paisley um I mean at times yeah of course you
know there’s there was some bullying and and things like that but I’ve always I don’t know why
um you know I’ve always been incredibly resilient I’ve always had a sort of can-do attitude and and it was never
really a choice to feel sorry for myself or or to you know let myself get it get beat up mentally about you know what
people were saying or or what they were doing towards me um so I don’t really know where that
sort of mental fortitude is came from I you know I guess I owe a lot of it I
suppose to my my family I’ve got three other brothers um and obviously my parents and you know
they so what I’m about a phrase they didn’t really care that I was disabled you know
and they didn’t you know they didn’t wrap me up in Cotton world and he didn’t treat me any different I was just one of
the four Sons um so you know there was no special treatment there whatsoever and you know
now that I think about it I guess that shaped me massively you know it helped me become who I am because I don’t see
myself as any different um my brothers certainly don’t see myself any different and I can assure
you Siobhan doesn’t treat me any special my wife so you know it’s um it’s
something that I guess just just being born like this and and having to just
be this way has has shaped me massively but you know I I’m actually very very
thankful for it and being the youngest as well you know I get two boys and I’ve and who are 13 and nine and then um my
little girl is is four and she’s the youngest and she’s the toughest and I wonder you know you know it’s because I
think as the youngest you’ve got to fight for your corner haven’t you you’ve got a you know this there’s two other kids that are in your case your case
three other brothers also that’s my that’s mine give me that you know which your mum must have been driven to
distraction oh absolutely you know I I I don’t anywhere one bet you know having four boys
all grown up in the one household just I mean from my memories it was it was calm
and you know so you know I dread to think what she thinks of it looking back but yeah you know of course you know
it’s four young kids you’re gonna have fights and squabbles like oh siblings do
but you’re gonna have a lot of good times as well you know and um I like the fact that you’re talking about your
brothers involving you in football from right from the get-go yeah they did you know they they tried to use my
disability as an advantage actually you know they they they used to Chuck me and goals thinking that I wasn’t Gonna Save
the ball because I didn’t have any hands um and that that just made me more determined to prove them wrong and then
I did so they got fed up and you know they found another way to I guess I guess bully me but it was uh building me
with love you know like yeah Brothers there so um but yeah they try to obviously use it to their advantage by
putting men goals and you know that just made me more determined to show them that I could do it and I guess you know
having that input from them you know they would never thought about it they were only a couple years older than me
they just wanted to score more goals than the other brother you know um but I guess without them even
thinking about it that that gave me such a determined and strong-world attitude that I still carry today
you were 17 when you came to table tennis and was it a light bulb moment for you did you actually when you first
picked up a bat did you think I could be great at this absolutely not
I was I was beyond Dreadful I could barely play let alone barely hold the
bat um but I enjoyed it that’s that’s the first and foremost that that I took away from table tennis and I yet to find
someone who’s played table tennis and not enjoyed it whether they take it up as a sport or a hobby that that doesn’t
matter but you know I I challenge anyone to play table tennis and not have a good time
um and that’s that’s what it was for me I just had fun you know and I really enjoyed it and I found you know this
this relatively local club uh drum Chapel table tennis club and I started going along and yeah it was just it was
good fun but I didn’t think it was you know gonna take over my life and become my job and then I had the uh privilege
of of going down to watch uh London 2012 the paralympic games and wow I was just
absolutely blown away and mesmerized that there was people just like me captivating not only the people of
London but the people of the world and showing them that you know disability really isn’t a barrier and from then on
I was like okay I don’t know what I’m doing but I need to get good at this sport
um because I want to be just like those guys and you know I I put my head down I worked
incredibly hard and and everyone at drum Chapel Table Tennis Club they supported me fantastically you know um when I came
home from London and and said that I wanted to be a paralympian they could quite easily have just laughed at me and
said well you’re not very good so just just be quiet and go back to playing but
actually you know they were so supportive and said right let’s let’s do it let’s let’s do this together and then
everyone at the club you know as I said just have have continued that support to this day and you know after after being
at London within sort of three short years um I was living and training alongside
the guys that I watched take Meadows um for Great Britain you know and um I
guess that’s just a testament to where hard work and dedication can take you but you know now that I’ve been doing this for for a number of years now it’s
you know it’s something that I want to emulate myself as you know just go to the the paralympic games in Paris in
2024 and and you know um hopefully bring back Major Meadows for for my country
any any sporting biographies that I’ve read the athlete always talks about the
fundamental importance of the coach is that the same for you yeah you know I I think like any
um sort of positive role model and figure in your life someone that’s going to instill growth in you is someone that’s going to
believe in you um you know and lean on you when you need to blend on and told that you’re not you know pilling your way but
equally support you in those when those things are going well um you know so for me Terry at drum
Chapel Table Tennis Club he was my first coach um and you know he still coaches me to
this day and he’s he’s been so supportive you know it was him that that first sort of got me involved in the
game he he took me to my first tournaments you know back when I couldn’t um drive or I’d stay at the club too
late to get public transport home he’d drive me from drum chat with Paisley and then and then go back home himself just
because he wanted me to keep playing and you know that support and and everything that he’s done for me is
you know it’s I’m beyond grateful for you know and then to obviously move down
south to the to the full-time setup where you know you’re now working with four or five different coaches at one
time and everyone’s got their own input you know you’re doing yourself at the service if you don’t grow and get better
you know when you get when you’ve got that many top quality coaches and athletes in the one room
um you know you can only improve is Terry hard on you
yeah he can be um thankfully these days um I like to think that I do a little
bit more winning than losing so he’s not got too much to moan about but uh yeah he is hard on me simply because he wants
the best for me you know he wants me to achieve my my my goals and my dreams and
and he understands what it means to me so you know he’s he has hard on me when he needs to be but equally you know he’s
he’s incredibly quick to tell me you know you’ve done a good job there and I’m proud of you so you know that goes a
long way as well I think it is that kind of carrot and stick you know I think I’ve heard two or three mentors in my
life and they’ve been extraordinarily hard on me at times I remember when I moved to London and I got a job as a
journalist and I was working for this guy called Nick Lloyd I think he was he used to be editor of the express or
something I can’t remember and he was he was terrifying terrified the life out of me and I remember he called me into his
office and he went oh yeah okay and he always mumbled yeah yeah sit down sit down say that son and he said to me he
said I just want you to know you’re better than the last person that did this job and I went off thanks
thanks Nicky man but you’re still not good enough but and I was guttied at that point I
was just like oh my Lord yeah but I still know that I look back and I kind of think the learning curve was massive
and I think sometimes the coaches I’ve got to be so hard on you to bring the best out of what you can be
yeah I I completely agree you know and especially when you take it into a professional setup as an athlete you
know you’ve got to be willing to take criticism almost every day you know especially in a skill sport you know if
my Coach sees that I’m doing something slightly wrong with my technique or or the ball’s not going just quite where I
want it on the table um you know from an outsider looking in they can spot that a lot quicker and and
you’ve got to be able to take that criticism and to just you know take it on the chin and accept it because ultimately they’re telling you what
you’re doing isn’t good enough because they want you to be better not because they’re trying to hurt you or or
belittle you or put you down um because ultimately you know within our British party within a setup we
consider ourselves as a family you know so if one of his gets better we all get better and if one of us grows we all
grow you know so um we we are very open and honest with each
other um probably to the point where you know if if you were to say the
things that we say to each other in any other environment especially our working environment you’d be probably called straight into HR but you know I think as
athletes and and you have to have that Dynamic with a coach where you know you can you can be told if you’re not doing
a very good job or um you know this has to improve or this has to get better but you know I think
with a great coach or a great mentor like you said you know that’s got to be balanced with with the good stuff and
you know the things that you are doing well and and that’s what the great coaches can do is is instill that belief
in you and still have the ability to to you know make you want to improve and to
work with each other [Music]
Scott’s care the charity helping to break the cycle of poverty some Scots
find in London [Music] when I’ve watched you on on YouTube and
other videos is a massively physical game I mean I know it sounds odd but there is an aggression to it when I
watch you play it I mean that in a positive way I mean you know it’s a non-combat no one non-touch sport but
you’re there you’re is is that something you need to be are you a pumped up player are you one of these players that
kind of gets into a kind of Zen like State before a game no I’m definitely more uh pumped up and it’s it’s quite an
odd one because like in everyday life I I think that I’m pretty chill you know uh pretty laid back um but as soon as I
get on the table tennis table um you know I’ve often a full telling me like you’re looking at me like you want
to hit me and I’m like only a little bit you know um but yeah I think I think
that comes from being so competitive with my brother’s growing up you know that I always wanted to win and and of
course they always wanted to beat me you know and so I think you know playing sport has come quite naturally to me and
to yeah to be to be as competitive at as I am you know I think definitely suits
suits me on the table but yeah it’s something that I’m so glad you said it’s you know it’s a lot more physical cool
because the amount of folk that you say you just stand at a table and move your arm about and it’s like it’s actually really tough I was wondering how tough
it is on your leg I mean on when whether you where the prosthetic joins your actual limb is that does that take a
pounding when because you bounce back and forth yeah I mean I I guess physically it it does but I I wear like
a protective liner on the inside that’s like a really nice thick soft spongy like Silicon gel yeah and that protects
the the stump the you know the limb that’s in there and it stops it stops any sort of like vibrations or shock
waves coming through so I actually don’t really feel it too much on the left leg What Hurts the Most usually is my back
because I’m so bloody tall and a table tennis table is quite low um and then obviously you add in that
I’ve got these little short arms so I need to reach for everything with my back so of course of course yeah for me
it’s it’s it’s a lot of back pain and a lot of back trouble but you know we have top class physiotherapists and and you
know we work with great sports science teams and things like that so I get the the best medication that they can
provide to be honest is is usually just a foam roller and a yoga mat yeah when things get you know a bit too painful
you know we can get some proper Hands-On treatment and and make sure that we’re fighting fit and ready to go and you’re
so focused Martin You’re So Dedicated so how how much did it hurt when you missed out so narrowly on Tokyo or the 2020
Olympics and wow you know I
I I never thought I would cry over a sport um
I mean just it’s just not it’s just not really my my nature uh and then I lost
it I lost in the qualification tournament for Tokyo and I bowled my
eyes out I I I I couldn’t speak for for like well over an hour I didn’t know
what to say you know my my wife she was watching the live stream back home and she called me and I just I I just
couldn’t speak to her like I just didn’t know what’s um I I felt so low at that point you
know because everything that I’d been working towards um since since London really you know
since watching watching the guys play um you know and I was like an eight-year
Journey to to that you know my is the solely fixed on it for such a long time I knew
I knew Rio would be too close in 2016 and and then um you know for 2020 obviously it was it was an eight-year
Journey that because of covered turned into a nine-year journey and um yeah it
was one of those things that I even lost it on on like what you would call like an edge ball you know so it’s been that’s when the ball Clips the edge of
the table and just because of that it doesn’t bounce it just keeps traveling down and it’s so hard to retrieve and
um yeah I was I was absolutely devastated as said just you know a lot
of Tears um a lot of anger frustration disappointment
um every emotion but but happy and uh yeah it was it was one of those times
where I was just like what you know what’s what’s been the point in these last nine years
um and then yeah after after a couple of weeks of feeling sorry for myself and sitting on
the couch playing a PlayStation uh my wife gave me a good talking tune and before I knew it I was um back and
fully focused on on qualifying for for Paris and and this year’s World Championships and you know which which
are in November and then you know so there’s um there’s definitely you know more to this story it’s not
just the fact that I didn’t qualify for Tokyo and I just gave up and felt sorry for myself you know there’s still goals
and aspirations there and and things to aim for that I certainly have my sights firmly set up on you I mean you’re still
quite young aren’t you 27 28 how long how long can you go on for uh I’m yeah I’m 28
um going on about 40 to look at but uh the uh the boldness doesn’t doesn’t help
on that front but yeah 28 and I think you know I’ve got at least at least another
six or seven years um you know I think being a part athlete a lot of the times you can naturally
have a slightly longer yeah career to your sort of run-of-the-mill athletes
um and being a lower classification which I am which means I’m more severely disabled
um you can actually usually milk it a little bit longer um you know just because the nature of
the game is as physical as you as you’ve witnessed um you know I’m not putting myself
through what an able-bodied athlete would do simply because I physically can’t and you know so their body tends
to break down a little bit quicker and when it does a little bit harder on the joints whereas for myself my body
won’t really allow those physical elements to come into it too much because it’s something that you know I
can’t do uh so so you know I’m hoping at least another five six seven years maybe
a little bit longer but it always depends on on you know how my career pans out and you know we never know
what’s going to happen these days you know and how things change so quickly as we’re all the way around now yeah yeah but looking positively we could be
looking at another two Olympics we could be looking at Paris and then Pirates and then Le yeah I mean that would be the
thing is there’s never a good time to step away you know you look at you’ve got you’ve got the Paralympics in Paris
you know Francis France is beautiful then you’ve got the paralympic games in
2028 in La after that it’s going back to we’re going other side of the world we’re going to Australia you know so
like how can you say no to go into these fantastic places all over the world um so there’s never a good time to to
step down and say goodbye so uh I really don’t know how long I’m gonna play for I
guess I guess I’ll play for as long as they’ll have me that’s my answer at the moment yeah there might just be a
natural feeling that you kind of go now my time is up you know I think sometimes it’s better if we make the decision
rather than the decision is made for us I think that’s my experience in life yeah I totally agree you know and that’s
I guess when it comes to it that’s probably when when I will step there you know when I feel like I’m not at that
level anymore um but you know I hope that doesn’t come for for a long time anyway for the
foreseeable future and because you know I I love what I do I think I’ve got you
know one of the best jobs in the world I get to travel I get to meet him incredible people see fantastic places
and and I get to or do it whilst having fun chasing a little white ball around the table with a plank of wood strapped
in my hands so uh I’m not complaining anytime soon that’s for sure well that’s been great talking to you
can I just finish from a quote from you actually you yes I read that you said my name is Martin Perry I have no hands in
one leg and I wouldn’t change it for the world I think that’s brilliant
and it’s true I wouldn’t you know as as I said being being disabled and and being involved in
table tennis has shaped my life so much in ways that I couldn’t ever imagine uh and and yeah I certainly wouldn’t
change the way I am Martin thank you for joining me today [Music]
