On the eve of their journey to Italy to compete in the Paralympic Winter Games, ParalympicsGB’s dynamic wheelchair curling duo, Jo Butterfield and Jason Kean, chatted to Editor Melissa Holmes about life on – and off – the ice

When Jason Kean’s doctors suggested he might compete at the Paralympics one day, he was in hospital, newly paralysed, thinking they were crazy. “I was sitting there going, ‘Wey aye!’,” he recalls with a laugh. Fast forward just four years, and the Newcastle native is heading to the 2026 Winter Paralympics in Milan-Cortina, representing Great Britain in wheelchair curling alongside his mixed doubles partner, Jo Butterfield – a Paralympic gold medallist determined to make history as the first British athlete to win gold at both summer and winter Games.

A WHIRLWIND RISE

Jason’s story begins in the darkest place imaginable. As director of a timber frame business, his spinal cord injury felt like the end of everything. “Post-injury, my life was over as far as I was concerned,” he admits. Depression consumed him. He barely left the house, embarrassed by how drastically life had changed. Then a friend who wouldn’t take no for an answer dragged him to a curling club. “He’d come and pick us up, we’d throw a few stones, and we ended up doing quite a lot of socialising, which I never did before,” Jason remembers. “Getting out and wheeling about with a load of wheelies, I was like, ‘Oh right, so life just carries on and you are just the same person that you were’.“

That realisation changed everything. By June 2023 – just 16 months after leaving hospital – Jason was trialling for England. By 2024, he was competing at world championships. “That was the moment I realised that actually – it sounds big headed, but – I am a world class athlete. I’m on the world stage with the biggest teams in the world.”

GOLD STANDARD

Jo Butterfield knows a thing or two about Paralympic glory. The Glasgow based athlete won gold in athletics at Rio 2016, five years after her spinal cord injury. When she switched to curling in 2023, she didn’t mess about: within six months, Jo won bronze at her first world championships.

But her second season brought an unexpected opponent: breast cancer. Aggressive, fast-growing, and rare, it required weekly chemotherapy, along with surgery and radiotherapy. “For the first time, I realised how vulnerable I was,” Jo reflects. “With my spinal cord injury, I never thought my life could end with it. But as soon as someone mentions the word cancer, you think, ‘What does that mean? Is this life ending?’”

Sport became her lifeline. “On the ice was the only time I didn’t think about it. I was able to concentrate on being an athlete.” She trained between treatments, finding strength in her teammates and the world-class facilities provided by National Lottery funding. “Without that, I don’t know what I’d have done.”

Two years on, she rarely thinks about her cancer. “It’s a distant memory,” she says, her focus firmly on making Paralympic history.

THE LOTTERY EFFECT

Both athletes are emphatic: none of this would be possible without National Lottery players. National Lottery funding has invested around £200 million into winter sports, building the National Curling Academy in Stirling – “probably the best facility in the world,” according to Jo – and providing coaching, sports psychology, physiotherapy, and technology like eye tracking analysis.

“I don’t think people across the UK realise that, without their support, none of us would be here,” Jason says. The funding transformed Jo from a part-time athlete juggling work at the Ministry of Defence to a full-time professional: “It means I can focus on training and recovery, and not have to worry about who’s gonna pay the bills.”

HUSBAND AND WIFE TEAM

Their partnership works because they’re honest with each other. “We’re not afraid to say what we’re feeling,” Jo explains. They’re jokingly referred to as ‘the husband and wife’ of curling – Jo admits she gets called “a bit of a nag sometimes,” and Jason laughs: “She keeps us in line.”

But when it matters, they’re stone cold focused. “We work so well together,” Jason says. “We’re totally focused on the process, stone by stone by stone.”

They’re heading to Milan-Cortina with genuine medal hopes, but also with perspective. “We could play our best in every single game and still not come home with a medal,” Jo acknowledges. “That’s the reality we can’t control. But because of the sports science, the physios, the medical teams, all these services National Lottery players have funded for us; if we trust that, if we go out and play the best we can, we probably will come back with something nice.”

PUSH THAT DOOR

Both athletes share a message for anyone facing barriers. “When I was first injured, it was all about what I couldn’t do,” Jo says. “I never knew what the future held. To be here now as a Paralympic champion – it’s somewhere I never expected to be.” She urges: “Push that door and see what’s behind it. If you sit there and say no, you’ll never know what possibly could have been.”

Jason’s message is equally powerful: “If my story can help get one other person to think, ‘Actually my life isn’t over’, then sharing it is worth it. Sport saved my life.”

As they prepare to fly out to Italy, one thing is certain: whether they medal or not, they’ve already won something far more valuable – their lives back, and then some.

_{IMAGE CREDIT: British Curling – PPA/Graeme Hart}