Testing the waters
Born 11 November 1994, Simmonds grew up in Aldridge, a part of the Metropolitan Walsall Borough, UK.
She is part of a large family, surrounded by three sisters and a brother.
She discovered her passion for swimming at only five years old thanks to her parents, and never looked back.
However it was only a couple of years later, during the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens that inspired her to try an agonistic career.
As reported by the International Paralympic Committee:
"I watched a lady called Nyree Lewis, she was a [British] disability swimmer, and she got a gold medal. I remember as a kid asking, 'How old do you have to be to go to the Paralympics? How does she do that?'"
"That was when I was really saying, 'Oh man, I really want to go to a Paralympics, I want to get a gold medal'."