On a miserable day in 2008 the unbelievable happened. A vehicle ran off the road and smashed into me, resulting in me becoming a high above knee amputee along with other life changing injuries. This threw my life into complete reversal.
It was a very difficult period of my life for my family and me. I could see very little hope for the future, I was paralysed for 6 months, wheelchair bound while waiting for bones to fuse and skin grafts to heal for another 3 years.
On the edge of depression along came Richard and his team with their expertise in Limb fitting. I jokingly call him my ‘socket god’ but joking aside, I actually really mean that! He is amazing at what he does.
With a functional socket on my prosthesis a new future opened up for me, my desperation lifted and a renewed determination set in. With Richard’s ‘socketry’ skills and with Pam Barsby’s physio advice I pushed through the getting up and walking barriers. I could finally see light at the end of the tunnel.
Before I knew it, the future held many new possibilities.
I’ve had to completely rethink the way I do things and had to discover alternative ways to fulfil my ambitions. I then started to live life to the full!
To kick start my things, in 2011, I did a tandem Skydive which was truly brilliant and doing this, I raised £750 for the Charity Blesma.
Pre injury my holidays consisted of trekking all over the world. I’d done things like climb Kilimanjaro and jungle trekking in Madagascar. I decided that if I couldn’t walk around the world any more then I’d explore it by swimming and joined a local scuba diving club.
In early 2014, I set sail across the infamously dangerous Drakes Passage to Antartica sailing as crew on a Tall Ship, the Lord Nelson.
Later that year, I went to Svalbard which is close to the Arctic. I saw polar bears and was able to confidently kayak wearing my newly fitted Genium X3.
I’ve always been a keen photographer but since my injury I have taken it to another level. This year a few of my photographs were shown at the Mall Galleries as part of a Blesma Members Photography exhibition.
Recently, I went to Iceland to capture with my camera the glaciers, wildlife and amazing landscape. On one trip, I felt the 5k walk over rocks and ice to a glacier was beyond my capabilities so hired a quad bike and drove myself there.