My journey with creatine started in 2007, when I was 30 years old.

At the time, I could never have imagined that almost two decades later I would be discussing creatine not simply in the context of sport, but in conversations around rehabilitation, critical care and the potential recovery of seriously injured individuals.

My interest began for a much simpler reason.

I wanted to find out what my body was naturally capable of.

I had always been an athlete. I boxed from around the age of eight, competed as a sprinter at a reasonably high national level and played rugby at a high level, where one of my biggest advantages was my speed.

But at 30, my sporting direction changed.

I joined a gym and met people involved in natural bodybuilding.

Natural bodybuilding fascinated me because competitors were drug tested. At the level at which I later competed, successful athletes could also be subjected to polygraph testing.

I remember thinking:

If this really is natural, there is nothing stopping me from finding out what I can achieve.

One of the leading bodybuilders within the sport told me that I had started too and would never win a British title.

Had I accepted that opinion, my story would probably have ended there.

Instead, it became motivation.