Anne Wafula Strike MBE (born 8 May 1969) is a

Harlow Harlow is a town and local government district located in the west of Essex, England. Founded as a Planned community, new town in 1947, it is situated on the border with Hertfordshire, and occupies a large area of land on the south bank of the ...

-based British

Paralympic The Paralympic Games or Paralympics is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of disabilities. There are Winter and Summer Paralympic Games, which since the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Kore ...

wheelchair racer Wheelchair racing is the racing of wheelchairs in track and field, track and road races. Wheelchair racing is open to athletes with any qualifying type of disability, including leg amputees, spinal cord injuries, and cerebral palsy. Athletes are c ...

. Wafula Strike was born in Mihuu in

Bungoma Bungoma town is the capital of Bungoma County in Kenya. It was established as a trading centre in the early 20th century. It is located in Kenya's fertile Western region and at the foot of Mount Elgon, Kenya's second-highest mountain. The tow ...

Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...

, and contracted polio at the age of two, resulting in a later

Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital The Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital (RNOH) is a specialist orthopaedic hospital located in Stanmore in the London Borough of Harrow, run by the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Trust. It provides the most comprehensive range of neuro- ...

diagnosis of below T7 paralysis. Arriving in the UK in April 2000, she was introduced to wheelchair racing in 2002 and in 2004 became the first Kenyan wheelchair racer to represent her country, competing in the T53 400m finals at the Paralympics in Athens. Following a successful application for British citizenship in 2006, she became a member of

Team GB Team GB is the brand name used since 1999 by the British Olympic Association (BOA) for their British Olympic team. The brand was developed after the nation's poor performance in the 1996 Summer Olympics, and is now a trademark of the BOA. ...

and, after reclassification, now competes in the T54 racing category as a British athlete. A past winner of the BBC's 'My Story' competition, her autobiography ''In my Dreams I Dance'' was published by HarperCollins in 2010. In 2013, Wafula Strike was featured in

Paul Stenning Paul David Stenning (born 12 June 1976) is an English author and ghostwriter. He has written twenty-nine books, of fiction, non-fiction, poetry and biography. The best-known of his books is ''The Robert Pattinson Album'', a biography of Robert P ...

's ''Success - By Those Who've Made It'', alongside many celebrities and notable people. Hers was the last personal biography featured in the book, which Stenning explained was because her story was the most powerful and the greatest example of success. She was appointed

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(MBE) in the

2014 Birthday Honours The 2014 Birthday Honours were appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms of Elizabeth II, Queen Elizabeth II to Orders and decorations of the Commonwealth realms, various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens ...

for services to disability sport and charity. In January 2017, while on a

CrossCountry CrossCountry (legal name XC Trains Limited) is a British train operating company owned by Arriva UK Trains, operating the current CrossCountry franchise. The CrossCountry franchise was restructured by the Department for Transport (DfT) in 2006, ...

train, she was unable to reach a toilet on time due to sitting in a wheelchair. She lost control of her bladder and urinated into her clothing. In the aftermath, she criticised CrossCountry for failing to provide a working disabled accessible toilet on the train. Anne has one child - named Timothy - with her husband Norman. In 2020 Wafula was named as a special envoy to the Commonwealth by Commonwealth Secretary-General

Patricia Scotland Patricia Janet Scotland, Baroness Scotland of Asthal, (born 19 August 1955), is a Dominican-British barrister and politician who served as the sixth Commonwealth Secretary-General, secretary-general of the Commonwealth of Nations from 2016 to ...

References

External links

Anne Wafula Strike's website
1969 births Living people Kenyan emigrants to the United Kingdom Sportspeople from Harlow British female wheelchair racers Paralympic wheelchair racers Members of the Order of the British Empire Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom Kenyan disabled sportspeople Paralympic competitors for Great Britain {{UK-athletics-bio-stub