You suffered and overcame a career-ending condition where your femur bone was fused into your hip. Can you describe your injury and what you did to recover?
I was doing a halfcab kickflip underflip, going at a good speed and I landed badly, ending up in the splits and tearing something in my hip. The scar tissue that developed as a result locked it down – I was cinched in. The bone would pull into my hip and grind, bone on bone, until eventually, calcification occurred, welding them together. I couldn't walk for any distance and skating seemed to be over. 

After much deliberation, with doctors doubtful of my recovery, I engaged in medieval ways to break apart the bone fusion – hammering the end of screwdrivers into my flesh, climbing into the wheel well of my car to apply leverage while pulling on the car's frame. After thousands of hours, over years of doing this, I began breaking those dried-gum-like strands of fascia. I would often become overwhelmed, screaming violently in pain, panic-stricken that I was doing more damage than good and I would never be able to skate again. Until one night, hanging from my car, I heard a thump. And when I got up, I realized that I had broken the calcification and my hip joint was mobile again. That was the beginning of what was to come.

The Millers travelled the length and breadth of Europe like gypsies, just as their Aussie forebears had done in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. From Spain to Germany and the Czech Republic they learned along the way and made friends at every turn. It was only a matter of time before someone noticed Miller’s talent. That finally happened towards the end of his first season in Europe when a German team asked him to contest the last two rounds of the Spanish CEV (Campionato Espagnolo Velocità) series.

“We had to pay for that, of course. We stayed with the same team for 2011, which cost us around 70,000 Euros [£59,000], doing the CEV and IDM [German championship]. I won the German championship and got a call from the Caretta Technology team to ride the last few 125 GPs of the season.

“That was about 7000 Euros [£5900] a race, which was f***** expensive for the s*** bike we were on. We got conned into going with them the next year, the first year of Moto3. So we signed a deal and we went with the Honda, but then everyone else changed to the FTR chassis. We were promised the world by the team and we paid through the arse; 250,000 Euros (£210,000), which was the biggest waste of money ever. My parents mortgaged the house for that – so I knew that was my one shot. The bike wasn’t what we wanted and my dad was ready to strangle the team owners. It was a shit year and by the end of 2012 I thought it was all over.”

Conservative economy spokesman Russell George said the decision was "disappointing" and "regrettable".

Plaid Cymru's finance and economy spokesman Adam Price asked why negotiations were taking place "with the clock ticking" when the proposal had been on the minister's desk for many weeks.

"Isn't it true that his own government's due diligence shows there is an almost negligible scenario where the guarantee will be called in?

"Because it's a strong project, it's a strong business case, in which case all this is academic and he should get on with the job and actually support this proposal in an area of Wales which is crying out for jobs and leadership."

Earlier, the developers said Blaenau Gwent and Monmouthshire councils were "fully on board" with the plan which would have seen them provide loans of £90m.