Jon-Allan Butterworth is an elite paracyclist who had a fine career in the army until injury cut it short. He is now an inspirational sportsman with a great story to tell and plenty of motivational tips that can stir any audience. Jon-Allan initially joined the Royal Air Force in 2002 before doing tours and serving in Afghanistan in 2005 and then two years later in Iraq as a SAC(T) Weapons technician.
Tragedy struck on 4th August 2007 when a rocket attacked the Basra Air Station on which he was working. Doctors operated on him in the field where they had to remove his left arm above the elbow. After recovering he first made contact with British Cycling coaches and soon after he got involved but instead decided to get back into work instead of sport. Then in 2008 he got involved with Help For Heroes and did a 350 mile bike ride challenge to raise funds for other injured army servicemen and women and this inspired him to take up paracylcing before eventually being signed up in January 2009 for the GB Team.
Leaving the RAF and focusing on this full time, he soon picked up many records on track including in the C5 class during the 2013 National Track Championships – 10.728s, also qualifying 13th out of 33 in the Open Sprint. Having overcome his challenges and risen to the top of the sport with many world records, Jon-Allan was also on The Jump on Channel 4 so is well known to the British public.
