Teresa Mullen

Teresa Mullen (1938 to 1989) was an Irish Paralympic lawn bowler from Dublin who won the women's bowls singles gold medal at the 1988 Summer Paralympics in Seoul. She began using a wheelchair in her mid thirties after complications from an epidural, and was introduced to lawn bowls at the Clontarf day centre of the Irish Wheelchair Association in the mid 1980s. She won the national special bowls novice title in 1985 and the Irish senior titles in 1986 and 1987, the first bowler from the Republic of Ireland to do so, and took bronze in the singles and doubles at the Stoke Mandeville Games in 1986 and 1987. Diagnosed with terminal cancer just before the 1988 Games, she travelled to Korea against medical advice, competed despite spending much of the time in bed, and won gold. She died at home in Coolock in August 1989.