HIGH school pupils were inspired after a visit from a disabled sporting great.

Steve Brown, a former captain of the Great British wheelchair rugby team, dropped in to Colchester County High School for Girls on Monday and gave a motivation assembly.

The Kent sportsman broke his neck in 2005 after falling from a balcony in Cologne, being inspired to take up wheelchair rugby whilst recovering in Stoke Mandeville Hospital.

Dawn Frost, assistant headteacher at the school, said: "It was a motivational assembly and a series of small group mentoring sessions.

"He was very much doing his sports coaching to help get the girls into the right frame of mind for their exams.

"The girls absolutely loved it and they were determined to get a space."

Mrs Frost said that the year 11, 12 and 13 students were "totally inspired" by their meeting with the former paralympic athlete.

She said: "He is a very important sportsman but he is also very personable as well.

"He was talking about how he over came adversity by having the right frame of mind and believing he could do it. That is what we wanted the girls to learn.

"We are astonishingly ambitious for our students but we also value them as humans and we want them to be the best they can be."