I'm British, Caribbean and Jamaican. I was born in the United Kingdom, and moved to Spain when I was 11. I lived in a little town, and experienced a lot of racism – people were trying to bully me for being an outsider.

Growing up, I definitely had gender dysphoria but didn’t know it at the time, as I didn’t have examples of people like me.

As a teenager, I wasn't really doing very good. I'm super dyslexic, and education wasn’t easy for me. I was sat in a classroom all day being told I was a failure.

But PE was the one thing that was good for me and my mental health – to sort of accomplish something. Before I transitioned, I’d always been interested in playing a wide range of sports – badminton, hockey, football.

In school, sports became a tool that just helped me feel like I could accomplish something. Outside of school, it was a way of connecting to people because I'd be very quiet in the classroom.

I had really low confidence and a lot of pent up energy. Sports helped me release some of that energy. It channelled it in a much more positive way, so that it could be constructive rather than destructive.

When I came back to the UK, I couldn't get into schools – they were doing GCSE and literally rejected me. I became a secondary school dropout by systematic default, which was a horrible thing to have lingering on my identity.

I started acting and every spare moment went into creating a career, and I had to give up sports – that was a shame. At 25, I hit my lowest point because of a knee injury. I couldn't walk up and down stairs, and was bed-bound for a couple of months while waiting for the physio. During that time, I realised I'm trans.

My fitness journey restarted from an injury and progressed into self discovery, to literally doing rehabilitation. I got a regular gym membership to strengthen my muscles.

[As told to Ragi Gupta — to be continued]