REDDITCH-born Paralympic swimming hero Claire Cashmore has revealed the secret to her success in the Brazil Games.

Claire finally returned from her Rio adventure which saw her bring home a gold medal in the women’s 4x100 and a silver in the women’s 100m breaststroke for Team GB.

The 28-year-old honoured her first post-Paralympic official engagement as guest speaker at the No Barriers Mike Oborski Awards, held at Wyre Forest Community Housing Group’s Foley Park offices on October 20.

And it was there she talked about her experience at the games, what spurred her on to fulfil her childhood dream and the reaction from the public.

She said: “To be successful, you need to overcome three things. The first of these is mind-set. I’ve had a few horrible people in my life who wore me down.

“My confidence was at rock bottom and I didn’t believe I could win because I was made to feel rubbish about myself.

“But with a lot of work with a psychologist and support from family and friends, I realised I needed to take control of my life if I wanted to achieve what I wanted.

“It was so empowering to stand on that podium in Rio knowing I was in the best place mentally.

“The second thing is challenge. Growing up with a disability was hard, especially as a teenager when you are already self-conscious.

“I thought that people were always looking at me and I wore long sleeved tops to cover up. But then I went to my first games in Athens when I was 16 and saw all these people with disabilities who didn’t have a care in the world.

“So I went home and stopped wearing those long-sleeved tops. It was scary at first but I found that people didn’t care once they got past the curious part.

“And finally, you have to overcome failure. To be truly successful you have to have tasted failure.

“My first taste was in Beijing when I thought I was going to win gold as I was ranked number one but in the end, I didn’t even get the silver. But I learned a lot about myself and embraced that failure.”

Claire added: “Winning a gold medal was what I dreamed of as a child and achieve that was amazing. But I want to win an individual gold and the hard work starts again.”