PARALYMPIAN Ian Rose gave an inspirational talk to pupils yesterday.

The silver medal-winning judo champion and former World and European Judo Champion spoke to Year Nine pupils at Cranford House School in Moulsford, near Wallingford.

Mr Rose, who lost his sight as a child, joined pupils from the all-girls school as well as Reading’s Blue Coat School for the afternoon.

He talked about his life and the things he has had to overcome to achieve Paralympic success.

And his speech aimed to encourage the youngsters to believe in themselves, worked.

Zara O’Reilly, 13, said: “He linked things in his life to the journey that we are going on in our lives and it motivated me to think about my life and what I want to do.”

Fellow pupil Martha Palmer, 14, said: “He was funny and made us all laugh. This helped us to focus on what he was saying and the importance of self-belief.”

The pupils were asked to write down what they want achieve, how they were going to do it and by when at the end of his discussion.