Alex Brooker

“Even at Sunderland, they have a sensory room as well so more clubs are trying to do more things, and that's how it should be really.”

“I just think there was a time when the good thing about being disabled was you got out of stuff.”

“Obviously with me, I've got a prosthetic leg, and I've always known that as I get older, I can't afford to weigh too much. It's the same with everybody, everyone has a risk of arthritis and stuff as they get older, but more so me, the way that I carry my body weight.”

“I love being a dad and it's amazing. It's brilliant.”

“When I applied for Channel 4 I was a sports journalist. I saw it as another sports journalism job, if I'm honest.”

“Personally, from my own point of view, I feel a lot more comfortable about my disability, having done television, than I ever have before.”

“You know, when the doctors say to me, 'What's your pain threshold on a scale of one to 10?' I say, 'Well, I'm normally coasting at about four.'”

“At one point, I was getting online abuse and it made me think that I didn't want to do TV again.”

“As a guy who makes jokes on a Friday night for a living, I'd worry if I was the sort of person who had the right advice for how to solve the NHS.”

“When I see someone in a wheelchair, even I do a double-take. And as someone who has a prosthetic leg, when I see someone not wearing their legs I think 'Oh my god.'”

“Everyone wants six-packs and skinny jeans. I'm not into skinny jeams though.”

“I suppose with my job I get to have fun for a living and make jokes about boring stories and monotonous things, but I also try and get out and enjoy myself.”

“I remember going into counselling in 2010 because I became really conscious of my disabilities.”

“I want to try wheelchair rugby, I could be quite good at that.”

“My relationship with my disability hasn't always been positive.”

“When you're disabled, the bar is set so low for you. Even if people don't say it, you can tell by the looks they give you. The assumption is that you can't do anything for yourself. I've always understood it to an extent, but it still hurts. And from that comes a determination to prove people wrong.”

“I look back on my childhood and my disability and think that I was very fortunate.”

“I would love to see more disabled people in soaps and dramas, it's a part of every day life and being disabled is just one aspect of your personality.”

“I think people forget that when they see you on television, it's not like the camera's gone on and I'm doing what I want.”

“My disability makes me emotional, but it also makes me laugh; the two are not mutually exclusive and I'm comfortable doing both. Joking about it can be a celebration of it, too.”