By Kari Storm
David lives in Norwich, England, and plays on the WDBS (World Disability Billiards and Snooker) Snooker Tour.
Snooker is a cue sport/game, similar to pool. It’s played on a table with 6 pockets. There are various colored balls worth various points each to get in the pockets.
David said his brother had a quarter sized snooker table in the garage when David was younger. David used to play snooker with his brother, but David had no serious interest in it at the time. David was more interested in football (soccer, in America).
David became more interested in snooker when he started playing it with his dad when David was 15 years old. Then David started playing it with his cousin at the local snooker hall every week. Around that time, David’s dad bought him a quarter sized snooker table, and David played every day.
After a road traffic accident in 2013 (requiring surgery to fix a broken leg) while he was studying Engineering at college, David said snooker became an escape from mental health battles.
What David loves most about snooker is that you’re in control of the game. You don’t have to rely on anyone else. He said snooker is a very tough sport, and it’s challenging working out how you play to the best of your ability and learning and improving. Competing on the WDBS (World Disability Billiards and Snooker) tour has taken him all around the world playing the game he loves.
What David finds most challenging about snooker is losses and underperforming. He knows what he’s capable of, so that can be frustrating for him.
Also, David said, having Moebius can sometimes affect his performance. Due to certain positions, he can be unsteady. And, with Moebius, the eye movement of aligning the cue ball and object ball sometimes causes discomfort due to eye movement difficulties.
An experience playing snooker that stands out to David was winning his first title 5 days after laying his father to rest. He said he wished his father was alive to see it.
More experiences that stood out to David were being runner up at the inaugural World Ability Games in Thailand in 2023 and last year’s first ever WDBS World Championships, again in Thailand. He said that was the best week of his life.
Growing up with Moebius for David was tough, but he said he’s known no different. He said school was tough for him because people can be so cruel. He said he was never academically smart, but he always loved sports. He said he excelled and could compete with “normal” people and was respected in this field.
It wasn’t until David was about 12/13 years old that he was questioning and researching how he could have this disability and the questions of “why me” and “how this has happened to me.”
David said that he has been bullied on social media and even at a snooker event. He said the bullying is horrible and he hates it, but he wouldn’t change having Moebius. He said you have to be thick-skinned and also stand up for yourself. And, not be emotionally and mentally drained by people who choose to directly hurt people with words and actions.
David’s advice for people with Moebius who are being bullied is acceptance is a massive thing. You can’t change the world and people’s outlook on you. You have to accept that bullying will always happen, but that doesn’t mean you can’t call people out on their behaviors.
When David gets stared at, he sometimes confronts them or asks them if they have something they would like to ask him about his condition. If they do ask him about his condition, he said he goes into scientific detail, which blows them away and they don’t know what to say or where to look. He said it’s about having confidence in your own self and having that strong mentality to call people out on their blinkered (narrow-minded) view of disabilities.
David would like the Moebius community to also know he has a one-year-old son named Ronnie.
And, David said to use Moebius as a driver and not go down the wrong path and wallow. Accept who you are and squeeze every little bit out of life. Do what makes you happy.
Written by: Kari Storm
