Gareth Davies

In my time covering Paralympic sport, I have never come across such a story, quite so close to home. This is the story of Daniel Biddle, destined to become a torchbearer for the Paralympic movement. When I sat down with him at a try-out session in East London two months ago, I did not know what to expect. Putting my tape recorder on, Daniel began to relate his story. On the morning of July 7 2005, only hours after London had been voted in as host for the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012 and the euphoria was subsiding, Daniel woke with a splitting headache at his East London home. He went back to bed for half an hour, got up again, and then headed into work late.

He missed trains, his breakfast at Liverpool Street station, and through a curious series of incidents, broke his regular journey to work as a projects manager for a construction company in Wembley. His misfortune, ultimately, was to find himself sitting on the tube train, next to the suicide bomber who blew himself up at Edgware Road station on that awful morning, when many people lost their lives. Biddle, now 29, lost both legs, and his left eye as his powerful body absorbed the blast. He was blown out through the tube train and into the tunnel wall in the explosion.

If any level of catharsis is possible from such an horrific moment, the horrendous injuries which followed, and what must be painfully difficult memories, Daniel's life has come full circle since he tried out at a Paralympic Talent Day at Mile End Stadium with 70 other hopefuls, and has been fast-tracked after a second session into a possible place in the GB Paralympic team in September 2012.

I genuinely found my eyes weeping as this man recounted, in an emotionless and dignified manner, his account of travelling to a meeting in Wembley that morning from East London. "I was late leaving home...my bus was delayed... at Liverpool Street I let the first tube go...because it was packed. I was texting a colleague when I got on the next train, and I've got big fingers and I'm useless at texting, and looked up and realised I had missed my usual station. As we pulled into Edgware Road, I looked around me. A youngish-looking Asian guy sat down on a seat in front of me. Then bang...I couldn't work out why I was outside the train. As the dust settled, there were body parts all around me. I knew then it was a bomb. A flap of skin on my head was hanging down over my face, my arms were on fire. I tried to move the train door off my legs, but I realised they had gone. If there is a hell, then that was it. I was absolutely terrified - it wasn't the dying, it was dying alone. I didn't want my girlfriend Lisa, now my wife, and my family to have to identify me in that state. Three men got me out, saved my life, and we are still friends."

Biddle was in a coma for six weeks, in hospital for 51 weeks. "A year was a benchmark for me. I wanted to get out of there before a year. It was a turning point." Before the explosion, Biddle was a strapping 6ft 4ins tall, a semi-professional footballer who played in goal for Hatfield Peverel in the Essex Premier League, and had played as a civilian for Met Police, before the terrorist bomb blew off his legs. Biddle remains a big man, in evety sense, with powerful upper body strength. He has tried out in the paralympic sports of shot put, powerlifting, and in archery, which, as he is right-handed and still has the vision of his right eye, is still potentially a sport he could excel at.

"You know, I watched the Paralympic Games from Beijing, on tv every night in September, and thought about competing in 2012. My manor, East London. I don't think I will ever accept what possessed that person to do that thing, nor will I ever, but I have accepted who I am now. I had to stop trying to find a reason why, and just move on. You've got to focus on what you can do, not what you can't do. You get to a point where you get your life back, and this is now what my life is now. I've finished my exams, I've requalified and I've gone back to work, I drive, I go to the gym, I use a sports chair. I'm the same person." Biddle, moreover, has requalified as a construction manager with a specialism in accessibility. Surely someone, somewhere, should be encouraging and inviting Biddle to be involved in what he is clearly qualified to do: assist in the design of the Paralympic Village in East London ?

If he gets a place at the Games, he will be able to travel there from home. As we sit together, I slowly suggest something - Daniel Biddle Paralympic gold medallist. "Oh, I do like the sound of that," he replied. I have a feeling it may not just be a pipe-dream. Biddle comes across as a realist, and has something special. The Paralympic spirit shining inside him.