WHEELCHAIR BASKETBALL ace Ben Fox has battled back from career-threatening heart surgery to book his place at Tokyo 2020 in Team GB's paralympic squad.

And the Wiltshire star says his inspirational story provides the perfect evidence to the parasport community that you should never stop chasing your dreams.

Fox, 25, was not a part of the GB squad that secured a memorable bronze medal in Brazil during 2016 but did help to fire his country to a European gold on his senior debut three years later.

That miraculously came after he underwent major heart surgery and Fox, who plays his domestic basketball in Spain, admits securing his seat on the plane to Japan caps the most turbulent of sporting cycles.

“I don’t think I’ve ever given up,” said Fox, one of over 1,000 athletes on UK Sport’s National Lottery-funded World Class Programme.

“I’ve always carried on chasing and aspiring to my dreams – that’s my little secret. It’s been a really tough last three years and I’ve had to fight myself through surgery.

“2018 was one of the happiest and saddest times of my life – elation at England doing so well at the football World Cup but devastation when my doctor said I’d have to pull out of the squad and need major heart surgery.

“He was honest and said I might never play basketball again or get to that level of fitness – we just didn’t know how it was going to go.

“I had to go through it for my health and make sure I had a long and prosperous life, but it was a really tough time and so hard for me.

“But a huge thank you to all my friends and family – my mum and dad, and UK Sport’s support, was amazing and within six months I was back playing full-time. It was a rollercoaster of a year.

Fox

first discovered the joy of wheelchair basketball when he met a GB coach at a service station and has embarked on a searing rise since first getting his hands on a chair.

Fox made history in Toronto in 2017 as part of the first British team to claim Under-23 World Championship glory and also scooped silver at the Under-22 European showpiece in the same year.

He now represents BSR Amiab Albacete in the fiercely-competitive Spanish league but says donning the ‘historic’ GB vest in Japan has always been his ultimate goal.

“It’s a massive honour and I’ve been through a range of emotions,” added Fox, who will be bidding to add to the 864 Olympic and Paralympic medals won by Great Britain and Northern Ireland athletes since the advent of National Lottery funding in 1997.

“I can’t wait to get out there with the team and being part of such a historic team – we’re such a successful team in both the Olympics and Paralympics.

“To have a chance to now make our own history at the Games is extremely special to me.”