Paralympic gold medallist and two times grand slam singles winner Gordon Reid will be giving a talk about how he overcame adversity at a young age to achieving his dream of being a world class athlete. Born in Alexandria, Scotland in 1991, Gordon was a fit, keen and talented tennis player until the week before his 13th birthday, when he was tragically struck down by a rare condition called Transverse Myelitis. Despite being paralysed from the waist down, Gordon bounced back and started playing the game he loved, only this time, in a wheelchair. As a junior on the world wheelchair tennis circuit, Gordon was ranked number 1 and won multiple titles. He has represented GB at the Invacare World Team Cup for the past seven years and led the first British Team to win the World title, beating the French in the final. At the London 2012 Paralympic Games, he reached the quarterfinals of both the singles and doubles events. In 2013, Gordon was the Doubles Masters champion and during the same year, a doubles finalist at Roland Garros. He also became the first British men’s player to win a Super Series singles title at Sydney International and then went on the reach the doubles final at the Australian Open in 2014. In 2016, Gordon won his first ever Grand Slam singles wheelchair title at the Australian Open, followed by the doubles title at Roland Garros. In July, he followed this with his second Grand Slam victory in the inaugural men’s singles wheelchair event at the Championship Wimbledon as well as winning the men’s doubles. And at the Rio Paralympics 2016, representing GB, Gordon won the Gold medal in the men’s wheelchair tennis singles and the Silver medal in the doubles

Poverty and disadvantage have become synonymous with the city of Glasgow. In tackling these problems, Professor McKendrick will assert that we must not lose sight of the human resource that is suggested by the city’s favourite marketing mantra: People Make Glasgow. A more prosperous Glasgow need not to be one that dismisses the importance of the resources that enriched the Glasgow of yesteryear. The lecture will draw on autobiographical accounts of professional footballers who grew up in Glasgow, passing conversations overheard on the street and in the pub, the cartography of the city’s changing urban fabric, evidence of poverty and multiple deprivation and a lifetime of being in and around the city. Professor McKendrick will consider the ways in which the city has been portrayed and understood through the seminal accounts of Sidney Checkland, Michael Pacione, Carol Craig and the Glasgow Centre for Population Health, among others. Taking account of the challenges that the city faces today and tomorrow, he will then reflect on the ‘common wealth’ of Glasgow’s past, present and future.