Jones was born in Colchester, England, and after being delivered via an emergency caesarean she failed to breathe for the first nine minutes of her life. Jones, who has cerebral palsy, was first introduced to the sport of swimming by a school Teacher at the age of ten. At the age of 15, she was selected for the Great Britain team at the 2000 Summer Paralympics in Sydney, becoming the swimming squad's youngest member. She competed in four events at Sydney, with her best result being in the 4x50m Medley Relay (20pts), where she and her team mates finished 6th.