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18th March 2025

bbc.co.uk/accessall

Access All – episode 152

Presented by Emma Tracey

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MUSIC-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Theme music.

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Hello, I’m Emma Tracey, and this is Access All. Now, when racing driver, Billy Monger, was just 17 both of his legs had to be amputated after a Formula 4 crash. He’s had all manner of adventures since then: Formula 3 racing in an adapted car; Race Across the World with his sister, Bonny; and last October, age 25, he became a record breaking Iron Man. That challenge saw Billy compete in the world’s most iconic one-day endurance Iron Man competition in Kona, Hawaii. A new documentary, Billy Monger: the Race is On follows Billy during the challenge, which was to raise money for Comic Relief. Take a listen:

[Clip]

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Am I the right person to do this challenge? Am I capable of doing this?

MALE-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý The Iron Man world championships in Kona, Hawaii.

MALE-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý One of the biggest, greatest endurance events on the planet.

FEMALE-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý He’s aiming at the world record for a double leg amputee which, wow, that’s going to be hard.

MALE-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý How are you feeling?

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Rough.

FEMALE-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Are you training every day then?

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Yeah.

MALE-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý It’s a massive inspiration so don’t f*** it up [laughs].

FEMALE-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý You can see on his face that he’s nervous.

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý It’s a hell of a journey, a hell of a journey.

FEMALE-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý He is an incredible human being. I’m sorry.

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý I’ve never run a marathon. It’s unknowns still at this point.

FEMALE-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý I always think that he can’t make me any prouder, but yet again he does.

MALE-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Billy thrives on helping other people, so he knows that the money that gets raised for Comic Relief will help a lot of people.

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý People that need to be the best versions of themselves and to flourish.

MALE-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý You will have dark moments.

FEMALE-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý If you get into that dark place you need to talk yourself out of it.

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý There’s a lot of work to do to try and prove that I can be an Iron Man.

MALE-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Anything’s possible and Billy is the epitome of that.

FEMALE-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý He commits to this project I think the way he commits to life, like nothing is going to stop him.

MALE-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý We’ll pick you up on the way to Kona.

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý A ride to Kona please.

MALE-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý No worries. Very good.

[End of clip]

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý That documentary is on iPlayer from 19th March. And listen, I have waited years to get a chat with this guy, and now Billy Monger is in the studio with me. Hi, Billy.

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Nice to meet you.

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Nice to meet you too. Tell me, how are you today?

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý I’m good, yeah.

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý And how is your body now a few months post Iron Man? Because it was in October in Hawaii, and now we’re early 2025, how’s your body now?

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý It looks and feels very different because peaking for an event like that, the training regime and everything like that, I’ve never been in better shape. And now I’ve had a few months just to let my body relax, enjoy Christmas period as well, that’s a factor I think [laughs] everyone can understand. But it’s feeling good and healthy, which is the main thing.

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý No lasting injuries or anything like that?

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý No lasting injuries. For a few weeks there were a lot of battle scars, let’s say, but they’ve healed up now.

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Oh, that’s really good. And your amputations are different on each side, aren’t they, so does that make it a bit harder?

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Yeah, 100%. I mean, when I first got on a set of running blades, it was a few years after my accident, I think it was back in 2019, maybe 2020 I was running basically with different form and technique side to side. So, I’d have my knee on my right leg, so I was sort of running in a more conventional gait where my leg would sort of follow through in a straight, you know, in line with my body, and my left leg I had to sort of swing around to get it back.

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý So, you were compensating quite heavily on the leg with the knee?

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Yeah, the leg with the knee has always been my strong leg and it’s always going to be my strong leg. I have a lot more of a lever there.

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Well, there’s a joint there.

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý There’s a joint there, which makes a huge difference actually in the world of prosthetics. It was still something that even with all the training I did that that imbalance is still there, it just has to be managed. On the bike my bike power, for example, I remember within the first month of starting to train for the Iron Man we got on a proper trainer when I was getting my bike fitted to me, and my power was 90% from my right leg and only 10% was generated from my left.

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Oh wow.

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý So, it’s quite significant.

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Yeah. What were the distances in the Iron Man, before I ask about when you were 17?

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý The distances on an Iron Man, it’s a 2.4 mile ocean swim, then it’s 112 miles of a bike ride, then a full marathon to finish, so all of those back to back.

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Wow. I mean, my husband’s training for a marathon at the moment, that’s enough for me to see him doing that, and that’s only one of your three disciplines. Wow. So, let’s go back to you started off on go-karts when you were a little boy, and you were just absolutely massively into racing, weren’t you. And then by young teenager you were in Formula 4?

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Yeah, that was my trajectory. My dad actually bought me my first go-kart when I was two years old, so he was fairly keen to get me into racing and to let me try it because that was something he was quite passionate about. He did a little bit of racing, not looking at it in a professional capacity, more it was just for a bit of fun with his mates on a weekend.

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý But he thought, I’ve got a boy now, here’s my chance.

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Exactly. He always tells me the story of when he bought me that first go-kart when I was two, he took me in the front seat of my dad’s van and the guy who was selling it obviously knew that you shouldn’t be driving it until you’re at least seven years old, and he looked in the front window and saw me and said, ‘It’s not for him, is it?’ and my dad went, ‘Yeah, it's for him’. And he went, ‘He can’t drive that until he’s seven’ and my dad was like, ‘I know, I just wanted to get him a go-kart’. I always find that quite entertaining.

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Right, so you were driving the whole time from when you were a toddler basically is what you’re saying?

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Yeah, being around cars was just something that I grew up with.

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Yeah. And then when you were 17 you had a crash.

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Yeah, so at that point 17, obviously ten years later, I’d won a couple of British championships in go-karting and my career, as I was starting to look at it, was going well. I’d probably say it was when I was about 11 years old that I actually thought racing could be a career for me. And then when I was 17 I had the accident at Donington Park when I was racing in British Formula 4.

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý So, what happened in the car that day?

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý It was any other race day really. Tricky conditions so we were on slick tyres on the grid, I remember that. And then it started to rain which for a driver it’s the most challenging conditions because it means the track’s very slippery, you haven’t got the correct wet tyres on, none of us did, which means you’re really low grip. And I think it separates the good from the great those sorts of conditions. And it was conditions that actually I really enjoyed driving in because when I was younger my dad sometimes would put me out in the wet on slick tyres on practice days just to really develop that kart control. He’d heard that Lewis Hamilton’s dad had done it with Lewis, and I think it is quite common in some of the great drivers that they’ve faced that sort of adversity in practice so that when you get to race day you’re prepared for whatever.

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý So, you were used to a lot of risk?

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý I was used to a lot of risk. And then the accident itself was just sort of a wrong place, wrong time scenario to be honest. So, the first lap of the race there was an accident up the front. I think I was starting the race about sixth, and then I had to spin off to avoid the front two who had crashed into each other. I managed to get going again but I think I was second to last. And at that point in a way as a driver you kind of almost relax a bit where you’re like, okay my race has been ruined, that was out of my control, but now it’s like sort of head down and all you're focused on is just making up as many places as possible before the finish. Which is what I was doing, I actually overtook a car at the corner before my accident. And then in those tricky conditions the driver up ahead, a few places ahead had spun off, but they were sat stationary on the racing line. And this part of the circuit you sort of come up the crest of a hill, I was doing about 120 miles an hour, and the two drivers in front of me that were side by side last minute, one of them goes each side of this stationary car because they have clear vision in front of them. But me travelling at 120 behind two cars side by side didn’t have the vision to see what was to come.

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý So, you went straight in.

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Straight into the back of it, yeah.

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý And what do you remember straight after?

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý I’d say I remember pretty much all of my accident because I was awake, I wasn’t knocked out or anything like that, I was conscious. But it is all kind of patchy memory wise, it’s a bit of a blur. I remember coming to a halt, I remember sort of hearing initially the driver that I’d hit who was stationary obviously he was screaming because he was in a bit of pain, I think he had an issue with his back. And obviously it’s a horrible reaction, the crash for him as well because he out of nowhere gets hit by a car doing 120. I remember coming to a halt, hearing that noise, the doctors rushing over to the both of us and me saying, ‘Oh I think I’m all good, go and see him’ because at that point you’ve got so much adrenaline going through your body that your body is almost tricking you into thinking you’re okay. I was almost in my head ready to undo my seatbelts and jump out of the car. But obviously that wasn’t the scenario. And subconsciously, even though you think you’re okay, there’s a lot to deal with.

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Yeah. And then obviously it wasn’t that case. You went to hospital, they put you to sleep to sort you out, right?

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Uh-huh.

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý And then you woke up a few days later without your legs?

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Yeah. A lot of the big decisions obviously were made with me being in that induced coma, which they put me in when I was still in the car because they were struggling to extract me out of the car.

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Oh wow, so they put you in a coma in the car?

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Yeah, they were really struggling with the extraction so they put me into that, so then they could separate the cars and get me secure in an air ambulance ready to go to hospital. And like you say, three days later I think it was, the accident was on a Sunday, I remember my first conversations happened on the Wednesday after where the majority of my surgeries had happened where the doctors had broken the news to my parents and my sister and some of my friends that as a result of the crash I was going to have to lose my legs. And they all dealt with that in their own ways, but obviously it was a huge shock. I think my dad out of them was most affected because I think he felt an element of guilt because he’d got me into racing. Obviously we were able to address that when I was able to speak to him and tell him, ‘Actually you might have got me into this, but I love racing and I wanted to do this’.

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý And actually I might do it again [laughter].

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý And I might do it again.

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý So, how did you deal with it?

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Well, I’d had racing crashes before. It’s inevitable in the sport. When I was nine years old, before I’d won my first British championship, I’d broken my wrist in two places flipping the car. You kind of know you’re doing something where there’s risk attached to it, you’re not naïve to it; but in a weird way you are naïve to it because you think that nothing serious is ever going to happen to you. But because I’d had previous crashes before I knew this one was more significant. I remember being in the car, I remember doctors coming up to me, me saying to them to go and see the other driver involved. And then within a few minutes obviously me starting to realise I couldn’t get out of the car and undo my seatbelts like I thought I would. And the doctors’ faces, I can remember seeing their faces, that look of panic and concern of oh my god, this is serious, what are we going to do. And then they were trying to extract me out of the car. That didn’t work so they had to put me into the coma. Just all those little micro reactions that I could see on their faces in those moments told me that things were probably slightly worse than maybe the other crashes that I’d had before. So, as much as it was a shock when I woke up and I was a double amputee, in a weird kind of way it wasn’t like this thing that I could completely have never expected. I don’t know why that is but that did give me a slight bit of reassurance in that moment that I think subconsciously I knew it was serious.

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Well, how did you deal with having no legs?

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý I mean, it’s a huge shock to your system. I was 17, I turned 18 in hospital, you’re at a huge stage of your life where you’re going from being a teenager to a young adult, you’re looking for that independence. And all of a sudden my life gets changed, I don’t know what things are going to look like, I don’t know what my day-to-day is going to be and how reliant am I going to be on other people. There are a lot of things going through your mind.

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý And what were the first few months like?

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý The first few months were tough. I was in hospital for five weeks, so the first five weeks were just basically about getting through that hospital period. There were obviously a lot of horrible moments being in hospital too, like the amount of blood that I had to get given. I think I lost it was about ten litres I believe of blood, so I had obviously a lot of blood transfusions.

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý So, there was a lot of health stuff to deal with as well as the actual physical not having all of your legs?

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Yeah, of course. The legs it’s an obvious injury, the surgeries you knew what the situation was with that. But all of the other stuff, I remember having a lot of sleepless nights in hospital because I had a big fever and I was struggling to get sleep, and just waking up in a pool of sweat. There was a lot to deal with in those early weeks.

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý So, after that when the main thing was the fact that you were a double amputee, how did you get back into life? What were things like at home etc?

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý We started to speak to people about getting the house ready for me being in a wheelchair. We live in quite an old house so it’s not really all on a flat, level surface. I was living, my bedroom was upstairs, so there were a lot of things to consider. So, my dad would go back at weekends, get help from his mates that were tradesmen and stuff like that, and they basically changed the whole house: they put ramps in where we had steps; they put my bedroom downstairs on the ground floor; the bathroom that was downstairs that wasn’t suitable for me they made into a wet room so that I could basically operate and have a space in the house that would work for me being in a wheelchair and given my situation.

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý They clearly didn’t know you were going to end up running a marathon in Hawaii.

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý I don’t think they would have probably thought that was going to be a thing back then yeah, [laughter]. This is a few years ago. But they did all that stuff just to give me as much ease as possible, to make things as easy for me when I got home, which was really appreciated on my behalf.

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý You got back to everything so, so quickly, which we will talk about in a second. But did all this ever catch up with you? Because all the stuff I’ve read is just like I went straight back in to try and get into racing, then I did this, then you did that, and it was always very cheerful. How did your body and mind, does it take years to recover? How did you cope with that journey? Because you just seem to have gone from one thing to another.

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Yeah, I think definitely keeping myself busy and finding things that I wanted to still go on and do was something that I found hugely important. And that’s where sport came into things for me because I’ve always been a competitive sporty person, and that hadn’t changed just because I’d lost my legs. So, for me it was just trying to find in those early stages a lot of things that I felt reflected that I was the same person that I was before my accident, but just now I was in a situation where I was a double amputee. That’s why going back to me was such a pillar in my recovery because when I digested the fact, spoke to my mechanics and my engineers who came up to see me in hospital and we got chatting, and I heard about other role models and people, like Alex Zanardi who was someone who became a double amputee as a result of a racing crash and went on to compete and race again, it just opened my mind up to the fact that don’t rule anything out, everything could still be possible. And I think that mindset was really important for me; it helped spur on my physical recovery in those days where my body did feel really weak and where the medication that I was on was weighing me down a bit, that made a difference.

MUSIC-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý This is Access All, the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½â€™s disability and mental health programme. I’m Emma Tracey, and I’m chatting to Billy Monger, the Formula 3 racing car driver who lost his legs in a racing car accident:

ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý But then you were introduced to prosthetics. Obviously you had the house set up for if you weren’t able to use them. Another part of your recovery and another part of getting used to things and finding out that there are bits of you that are different is getting used to the prosthetics. Tell me about that, and have you become quite geeky about them because you’ve got a lot of the different ones now.

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Yeah, particularly after doing this Iron Man training for the last year, the amounts of sets of sockets and legs I’ve got at my house has gone to a whole other level [laughter]. I’ve just got spare prosthetic bits everywhere and there’s not enough room to put them all. Prosthetics has obviously been important to get me back up on my feet, and it’s allowed me, having the prosthetics that I have now, to go on and do all this cool stuff. It wouldn’t be possible without those prosthetics. I do really get involved in that process now. I think the last year of training for the Iron Man particularly honed me in on my relationship with prosthetics. People think prosthetics are a one size fits all, but it’s so individual to each person. I think I’ve gone on a bit of a discovery process with my prosthetist, Steve at Dorset Orthopaedic, he’s been super important for me. Because the training for an Iron Man is one thing, getting up and doing all the training that’s in a way the easy bit of all of the process is doing the training. But for me being a double amputee some days I was getting up in the early stages and my prosthetics weren’t fitting right and we needed to make quick changes so that I didn’t miss out on weeks and weeks of training. And as a result of being a prosthetic user sometimes you get sores on your stumps, and there were a lot of things that we had to consider and we were making lots of changes, which have ultimately got us to the point where I could take on the Iron Man and feel confident that my body was going to be able to hold up.

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý What sorts of different prosthetics and prosthetic bits do you use on the regular now?

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý The legs that I walked in today on, they’re my legs that I use day to day.

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Tell me about them?

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý So, these are just fundamentally just prosthetics. I have on my left leg, where I don’t have a knee, a microprocessor knee, which is a very fancy bit of kit which does a lot of clever stuff to stop me, if I catch my toe on a ramp or on a pavement, it helps me to not stack it, it helps to give me a bit of stability.

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý And do you have to plug that in at night then?

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Yeah.

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Has it got a USB in it?

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Yes, it’s got a charging port on the back. Normally, to be fair, the battery life lasts about four or five days. So, sometimes you get into the habit of charging it most nights.

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý I was going to say, have you ever forgotten to charge it?

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý I have forgotten to charge it on a couple of occasions.

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Does it still work?

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý It seizes up if you don’t charge it, and it makes a beeping noise. Which I discovered for the first time actually as I was walking into an exam hall back in 2018, literally about to walk in and my leg just started randomly beeping, and then I wasn’t able to walk on it properly.

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Okay, so you’ve had the same sort of leg since the beginning then, the microprocessor?

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Yeah, these have stayed very similar in terms of the components. The sockets and the fitting to me, which is the individual part of using prosthetics, that’s the thing that changes on quite a regular basis that me and Steve have had to go into quite a lot as my body changed throughout the last year through training for the Iron Man. I also have short stubbies, they’re called, which I use for the gym so that I can lift weights on and they give me more stability. The centre of gravity you’re a lot lower so it’s easier to stabilise, so doing lower body strengthening exercises like dead lifts and power clings, exercises that I do in the gym…

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý That’s all gibberish to me, by the way [laughs].

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Yeah, it is for a few people.

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý I know what you mean, lift and raise and stuff like that.

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Yeah, anything lifting weights is where I use those prosthetics. And also I effectively call those my slippers, so if I’m walking around the house, because they’re a lot lighter and a lot smaller usually you use less energy using them around the house. Sometimes I’m walking around the house and I’m a foot shorter.

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý What do they look like?

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý My prosthetics I’ve always from day one gone for a carbon fibre look. I know a lot of people, again it’s very individual, some people like prosthetics that look more like real legs, and with the stuff that’s out there now people can design them to make them look like actual legs. But for me it’s always been, like people knew I was an amputee after my accident, and I don’t really want to hide that away so I like a bit of carbon fibre as well. So, I make them look carbon fibre cool and I just wear them out.

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Okay. Did you have two different prosthetics for the Iron Man? Because we will start talking about that now [laughs].

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Yeah.

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Cycling ones I’d imagine?

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Yeah, I had cycling prosthetics specifically for cycling, so those had little clips on the feet to allow me to clip in and out of the pedals. And then the running blades as well which are to do the marathon on. They’re basically big springs that are designed to keep you building up a bit of speed and momentum. It makes a big difference.

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý But obviously in Hawaii where you did the Iron Man it’s really, really hot. We actually did a piece last year where people were preparing for the Paralympics and they were going into heat chambers, because it’s quite different when you’re an amputee.

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Yeah.

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý You sweat differently, don’t you, and you have to do different things to cope with that. What did you do to manage the heat?

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý That was again during the process of preparing for Hawaii I went and spent ten days down in a heat chamber down in Christchurch with the guys that were providing me nutrition support as well. They’d just built this heat chamber and they basically offered it to me for ten days, so I went in there and did a full heat acclimation programme with them, which means spending about an hour and 15 minutes each day in this heat chamber.

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý How hot?

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý It started off the day one I thought it was hot enough, it was 38 degrees.

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Oof!

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý And by the end it was about 42 degrees.

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Ah!

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý And I was going in there for an hour and a quarter, basically getting on the bike and cycling for an hour and a quarter in those conditions. And let me tell you, that absolutely wipes your energy out.

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý I bet. And what happens, especially when you’re out training, so you’re cycling on the road and you’re running on the road, what happens when you sweat? What do you have to do? Like, do you have a problem during your marathon, do you have to stop and deal or do you just run through the pain and the discomfort and deal with it after?

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Again, me and Steve, who looks after my prosthetics, we had a lot of discussions about this because it is quite a common thing. I remember even working away in hot countries with my walking legs, you go on planes and I remember my legs swelling up a little bit. And sometimes your sockets can go from fitting really well to not fitting you at all and being really uncomfortable just from being in a hotter climate. So, it was something that throughout the process, because I was training in the UK we were like, we need to find out what happens when you’re in heat and work out how we’re going to combat that. Steve initially thought that I would have to take my running blades off every 10kms on the marathon to pour any sweat out that was in the sockets, wipe the material down and dry it off.

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý It’s so glamorous, isn’t it?

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý It’s not very glamorous at all [laughs]. At that point in time I was thinking to myself throughout the process, I’m going to be like nine, ten hours into this challenge probably, and the idea of having to stop when my body’s probably, I didn’t know how much it would be hurting but I knew it would be hurting quite a bit to be fair, and the idea of having to stop to clean my legs out to then go again was something that didn’t really sit well with me. I was like, I really don’t want to have to give myself the option of being able to stop; I want to be able to just be like right, I’m just doing this.

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý So, what did you do instead then?

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý It’s called a boa system, which I used particularly on my left leg because that’s the one where I get a lot of fluctuation in terms of the size of my stump. It’s a very similar system to what some people have on cycling shoes where you can basically twist this little lever and it pulls a set of cables tighter, and it tightens the shoe onto your foot. We put that system in place on my prosthetic, so I had a prosthetic that when I got up in the morning and I started doing training it fitted me really well, and eventually as I got throughout a session and maybe an hour into a run, and it would get a bit looser, I would be able to turn this lever and tighten the socket, so basically adapt it to me coming down in size as I was going throughout the process. And that allowed it to feel secure, stay on me, and we were able to do the marathon and all of the Iron Man without having to stop at all for that.

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Okay. I was imagining a little pump thing that would pour out the sweat for you, but no.

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý No.

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý It just tightened it up so that it felt more comfortable. I mean, the other reason why you didn’t want to stop, I’m reckoning, Billy Monger, is because you wanted to break a record.

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Yeah.

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Because that’s just what you’re like, right, you’re competitive, yeah?

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý [Laughs] yeah.

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý So, how long was the Iron Man and how much did you break the record by?

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý So, the Iron Man took me I think it was 14 hours 23 minutes, and some change. And the world record for a double amputee at the time was just under 16 and a half hours, so I broke it by I believe just over two hours.

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Wow. How did that feel?

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý I mean, completely blew my expectations out of the water. I was training for a year, and me and my trainers we’d felt confident that I was physically in a really good place, like I’d had minimal injuries throughout the year of training and it had all gone fairly well, all things considered. But that record, it’s a record for a reason, and there had been multiple double amputees that had attempted to break the world record in Hawaii. I think about five or six amputees had attempted the race and only one of them had been able to finish within the 17-hour time cap. If you don’t finish in 17 hours you’re classed as not an Iron Man. You complete the event, you might be able to get your medal, but you don’t get the words spoken out that you are an Iron Man.

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Why did you get into these endurance challenges alongside your racing? What was the urge?

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý When COVID happened and my racing programme for that year was put on halt and everything came to a stop and I knew I wouldn’t be racing in 2020 I basically started eating what I wanted, I didn’t really care about training. And that probably went on for the first two or three months in lockdown. I remember looking at myself thinking, come on Bill, you’re better than this, you need to look after your body, it's important. So, I started training at home in a gym, and I started training knowing that I wasn’t racing, but just training.

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý For something to do.

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý For something to do. And I fell in love with the process of actually getting better and feeling better within myself. That was a huge turning point for me.

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Was that good for the mental health as well?

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Yeah, massively good for my mental health. Again, it was just like the physical and mental benefits you get from looking after your body are not to be underestimated. Yeah, it started there and then it escalated to Comic Relief approached me to do this challenge. And my trainer at the time he said to me, ‘I think this would be really good for you to have a goal to focus on, and also to feel like, even though 2020 has been a year where we haven’t been able to do a lot on the track together, you’d still feel like you’ve achieved something’. So, I went and did this challenge for Comic Relief.

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý And you haven’t stopped since [laughs].

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý And it definitely unlocked something in me.

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Yeah. So, will you keep it up then? What’s next, the Paralympics I hear there’s some talk of?

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Yeah, potentially. To be honest, like I said, the last few months I’ve just kind of been embracing not having to do 20-hour training weeks and having a bit more of a relaxed mindset to things. Because training that intensely for such a long period of time it does take it out of you, and sometimes you just feel you need a break.

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý You’re not a machine, Billy Monger.

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý I’m not a machine, so I’ve had my break and I’m just starting to get back into things. Which is always the hardest step I find is that when you do take a break from whatever it is, the first time going back to the gym, the first time going for a run, always feels so difficult.

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Yeah.

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý But I’m starting just going through that process now, and who knows what that thing will look like in the future.

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý What would you compete in in the Paralympics?

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý The enjoyment that I got from doing the three disciplines in the Iron Man, I think para triathlon would be something that would intrigue me the most.

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Ooh, you heard it first lads.

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Yeah, you did.

EMMA-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Well, you can watch the documentary, Billy Monger: The Race is On, when Red Nose Day returns on 21st March. I’ll definitely be watching. Billy Monger, thank you so much for joining me on Access All.

BILLY-ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Thank you.