Jake's story

"The happiest time in my life was when I won my British record for powerlifting."

The happiest time in my life was when I won my British record for powerlifting. It was something that took a lot of work to build up to and achieve. I’ll never forget it.

It involved about 16 weeks of training in the gym and making sure my diet was on point. I was eating upwards of 5000 calories a day, so it was a mental struggle as well. It really took a toll on me physically but it also tested my mental strength, especially as the weeks went on. Then on competition day I had to make sure everything was perfect and that it all went to plan, which it did!

The saddest time in my life was a few weeks after that when unfortunately I fell ill with a few different things, and it stopped me competing at the world championships. I then had a seven-month struggle to get back from that, so the best and worst times of my live both happened within the space of six weeks.

Now I try to document everything I go through in life so that when I’m gone there’s something for people to look back on and remember me by. I really enjoy catching a moment through a photo. It gives you one chance to capture something and tell a story.

I love making videos too though. I work as a photographer and videographer for the Essex sports teams at the moment. Capturing moments of the team is really special because the team can look back at it and see things they might not have noticed when they were focused in the game. I’ve made so many friends through doing this too which is nice, plus meeting so many new people has definitely boosted my confidence.

The one thing I live by now is that you’ve only got one life – so live it. I write that on captions and all sorts of things, and I share it with as many people as I can.