Danielle Joyce

Danielle's Story

Danielle, from Stevenston, Ayrshire, grew up being involved in sport and knew from a young age she wanted to do something in that sector.

By the time she left school, her swimming career was taking off and she was offered a sports scholarship at the University of Stirling.

"I wanted to continue swimming whilst studying and knowing Stirling was the University of Sporting Excellence made me want to study here," she said. "When I was offered a scholarship I grabbed it with both hands.

"I enjoyed science, especially biology, at school, so combining sport and science together was the perfect degree for me."

Being both a swimmer and deaf, created a few challenges for Danielle, but she said the support offered by the University helped her overcome them.

"It is hard being a deaf student and having to lip read lecturers in dark halls, especially if I'd been up at 5am for training by the time I came to class," she said. "Many of the lecturers sent me transcripts of the class so I didn't miss anything they said, which was really helpful and thoughtful."

The highlight of her time at the University, was winning gold, silver and two bronze medals at the World Championships in Texas and winning two gold and two bronze medals at the Deaflympics in Turkey.

"It was the highlight of my swimming career so far and a summer I will never forget," she said. "Over the four years at Stirling, I've broken a deaf world record more than 30 times, so I've had an amazing career here."