Published: Friday, 3rd October, 2008 3:00pm

Mother's pride over her golden son's triumph

by Annabel Williams

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THE mother of a gold medal-winning Paralympian swimmer has returned to work at a Woodcote school, still flying high from her son's success.

Pauline Walker has just come back from Beijing where she watched Graham Edmunds win a second gold medal as part of Great Britain's four by 100m men's freestyle relay team.

Graham, 34, took the team from seventh to second during his leg of the race, and along with Matt Walker, David Roberts and Robert Welbourn, the foursome are the current Paralympic champions, world champions and world record holders.

In the Athens Paralympics in 2004, they were the first Paralympic team to finish the race in under four minutes, and in Beijing they did the distance in three minutes, 51 seconds and 43 one-hundredths of a second.

Graham, 34, is an honorary life member of Reading Swimming Club having been born in the town, but he now lives in Swansea where he trains at the Welsh city's 50-metre Olympic-sized pool.

Both he and his brother, Barry, have worked one to one with mentally handicapped children at Reading Cygnets Swimming Club.

Pauline is a housemother at St John House at The Oratory School, a boys' day and boarding school.

She said: "It was thrilling to watch Graham and his fellow team members swim so outstandingly well.

"Graham is a fantastic example of someone who turned adversity into triumph.

"He had an extremely serious road accident eight years ago, and doctors considered amputating his legs.

"His love of sport and commitment to swimming helped him through that trauma and helped him win two Paralympic golds and one World gold - I'm immensely proud of what Graham has achieved."

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