Ben Moore won’t have received many better birthday presents than finding out he was going to the PyeongChang 2018 Paralympic Winter Games.

But if you thought the moment was anywhere near sinking in for the Plymouth snowboarder, you couldn’t be further from reality.

Breaking a foot in training back in August ensured the 32-year-old would have far from a smooth journey, throwing his ParalympicsGB potential in doubt with the Games in sight.

Now, with his injury healed, Games place secured and dreams realised, this is the time for looking ahead instead of behind for Moore – that’s if he could contemplate the months that have gone before.

“I can’t put into words how much it feels and how much it means, being selected for the Paralympics has quite literally knocked the speech out of me,” he said.

“To get the news on my birthday was even better, you don’t get much of a better present.

“It’s been an ongoing topic over the past year or few years, I’ve been training and riding and doing everything that I can to get chosen, and now here I am.

“It’s been an interesting journey with the ups and the downs, coming back from injury, but we’ve been able to get here.

“It’s just been a rollercoaster ride, I’ve had numerous injuries over the years, including bending my foot while in Chile and I only got back on snow in October.

“I was really concerned about missing PyeongChang, I’m sure everybody feels that way at some point and having beaten myself up so many times with the injuries I’d received, you feel at some point that something may reoccur and I’ll have issues.”

Moore would not be in this position had he not suffered a motorcycle accident more than 12 years ago, suffering paralysis of his arm following nerve damage.

It was a time that, the Devon man himself admits, was the most testing of his life, spending six months contemplating what to do next after his lifestyle was turned upside down.

Thankfully for him, along came snowboarding from a trip to Bulgaria with his friends – and just three years later he was a double World Championship medallist in the upper limb classification.

“People say to dream big and I always thought my head was in the sky, so for it to be a reality is quite literally what dreams are made of.

“I’m going to go out there and enjoy it, enjoy the moment and remember the opportunity that I have.

“If that manifests itself into a medal, then all the better.

“I never thought I would get to this level, I know that if I hadn’t been knocked off my motorcycle and lost use of my arm, I wouldn’t have the chance to look forward to what I am now.

“I don’t think it will ever settle in, I don’t think I’ll be able to absorb it for a long time. I can still look back at things that I know have happened, but they still feel like a dream.

“In the first World Championships I competed in, I managed to secure a bronze in boarder-cross because of my own silly fault, but the silver I got in banked slalom was simply overwhelming.”

Sainsbury’s is a proud long-term supporter of the British Paralympic Association and a champion of inclusive sport for all. For more information on Sainsbury’s commitment to inclusive sport visit http://www.j-sainsbury.co.uk/