After competing since the age of 12 in athletics, Dean made his Paralympic debut at London 2012 competing in the T37 1500m (a category for athletes with cerebral palsy), finishing 7th in the final.
Dean made his international debut in 2006, then 17 under the tutelage of his father, at the the IPC World Championships in Assen, Holland, finishing 8th in the T37 800m final.
It was in 2007 that Dean switched Barrow-in-Furness for Birmingham choosing to study at the University and hooked up with renowned distance coach Bud Baldaro. After a succession of stress fractures during his first couple of years of study, forcing him to miss the Beijing Paralympics, things started to improve towards the middle of 2010. During 2011, Dean made a return to the international racing scene, winning the IWAS world U23 1500m title in Dubai and competing in the Paralympic World Cup. Moreover in the summer of 2011 he also graduated from the University of Birmingham (BA Sport P.E and Coaching Sciences), making the decision to stay in Birmingham and go full-time with his athletics in a bid to make the home Paralympic games.
Earlier this summer Dean finished a career senior championship best finishing 6th in the T37 1500m at the IPC World Championships Lyon, France.
Dean continues to base himself in Birmingham, regularly training with the University Athletics team with dreams of medalling at the Rio 2016 Paralympic games.