History maker Aileen Neilson will never grow tired of being called a Paralympian.

The Strathaven wheelchair curler is all set for her third Games having been selected for PyeongChang, with a bronze medal from Sochi 2014 already part of her collection.

But for the 45-year-old, the Paralympic Winter Games mean a whole lot more than the medals around her neck.

Vancouver 2010 saw Neilson have the honour of being the Paralympics’ first female skip, a role she will continue when she heads to South Korea in March – still with the same buzz of her Games debut eight years ago.

“It’s never a gimme being selected for the Paralympic Games, it’s always nice to see it in writing and hear the official announcement so I’m absolutely delighted, I’m so proud and privileged,” she said.

“It was amazing, that medal is something you dream about and for that to happen was just incredible – we know that feeling now so we know what it would mean for all of us to be back on that podium again.

“You definitely visualise what you would like to happen in PyeongChang, we’ve put in a lot of hard work and we can realise that if we go and put in a good performance in South Korea.

“After our success in Sochi, we’ve had a real rollercoaster – we had a lot of defeats and we were relegated to B level, but we managed to fight our way back and I think that has shown a real resilience within our squad and our team.

“We went to the qualifiers and didn’t make it, so we had another year to really look at things and our coach really worked hard to get us back to where we needed to be at the next qualifiers, where we finished second and thankfully we made it.”

Neilson, whose family have a curling background, suffered nerve damage to her legs following an operation when a toddler, with her legs deteriorating over time resulting in her use of a wheelchair.

But it was a few years until wheelchair curling became part of her life, recommended to her by a coach when she brought her class of primary school students to a rink.

From there she hasn’t looked back and for lead Bob McPherson, second Hugh Nibloe, third Gregor Ewan and alternate Angie Malone, the past 18 months have seen highs and lows in equal measure.

That most notably included bronze at last year’s World Championships, also in PyeongChang, a test event to inspire confidence if ever there was one.

But the skip has also seen relegation suffered by the team, though she remained confident these performances were never in doubt.

“All the competitions you go to and all the training you do allows you to learn so much, one of the chaps we work with always says it’s not about winners and losers, but winners and learners, so every game we play, particularly the ones we lose, we can learn so much from that,” she added.

“I knew that the team had the skill and the knowledge to be able to perform at that level to get us back there.

“There was a lot of hard work that had to go into that because it wasn’t easy, but now we are back and looking forward to the challenges that lie ahead.

“To go to the Worlds and get back on that podium really gave us a big boost in our confidence and I’m sure we can continue to get back to where we want to be.”

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/