I sustained my Spinal Cord Injury in 2011 while on holiday in Spain with friends. I ran into the sea and jumped through a wave. The wave was so powerful that it crushed C4 into C6 leaving C5 in pieces. This resulted in me becoming a C5/6 tetraplegic and was the start of my Spinal Cord Injury journey. In 2016 I met my now wife and her two children. We have grown as a family, and we really enjoy going on days out or on family holidays together.  I love travelling, and we have travelled to Marrakesh, Lanzarote and love to holiday in the UK exploring different accessible activities. My life has changed since becoming paralysed but I have continued to enjoy everything I did before my injury, going to live sporting events, the theatre, socialising with friends and now the added bonus of my own family.

I first heard about Aspire in the Patient Education room at Stoke Mandeville. I was struggling to find suitable accommodation as I had nowhere to live. I was lucky to be the first person to live in the Coventry Aspire house where I lived for five months. It made such a difference to be out of hospital after being there for so long and I just wanted to start my life again.  While living in the Aspire house I managed to go back to work and start driving again.

Eventually, with help from my local Council and community Occupational Therapist who helped me find suitable accommodation, I was able to move into a permanent accessible property closer to where I needed to live.

I wanted to work for Aspire because every time I’ve heard from or spoken to somebody from Aspire, they have always been so friendly and knowledgeable, and the staff always say what a wonderful charity they are. 

I started working for Aspire in August 2024 having not worked since 2019. I went back to work after my accident but unfortunately I was made redundant from my previous job working for a pub company. I then decided to do some volunteering work for several charities until I eventually applied to work for Aspire and I was offered the roles of Independent Living Advisor and Patient Education Administrator.

After being paralysed for 14 years and speaking to newly injured people in my voluntary roles before I worked for Aspire, I realised I had gained so much experience in a wide variety of topics relating to spinal cord injuries that I would like to share with others.  I’ve always been happy to share what I have learnt over the years and when thinking back to being newly injured and how difficult it was.

I work at the Spinal Injury Centre at Stoke Mandeville which is where I completed my rehab in 2011 and 2012.  I remember always being positively encouraged to develop as many new skills as possible and learn to live a new and different life.  I go to the Spinal Injury Centre three days a week on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Two days a week I work as an Independent Living Advisor and one as Patient Education Advisor, helping with the patient education program as a patient education advisor.

The Independent Living Advisor role is so varied; I could be drinking a cup of tea and doing a jigsaw and just having a general chit chat with a patient and then half an hour later I could be having a very intimate conversation about people's money worries or their outlook on the future. I talk to people about anything and everything even if it’s just saying “hello, how was your weekend?” 

As Stoke Mandeville is so large, the two days I am there as an Independent Living Advisor I speak to so many patients, family members and members of staff. Normally, I speak to around 10 patients in depth about their concerns and worries and if I don’t know the answer I can point them in the right direction of somebody who does. Saying ‘hello and how are you’ is so important because many of the patients look out for me and seek me out for advice.  I may have spoken to them previously and they feel comfortable asking me questions they might be embarrassed to ask the doctor or a professional medically trained person. Doctors and nurses don’t necessarily have experience of benefit worries or house adaptions. The topics that come up most are definitely benefits and housing worries. These play on people’s minds throughout their hospital stay as they generally cannot be resolved until closer to the discharge date. Some people find it extremely stressful due to the uncertainty of things in the future so it’s helpful for them to talk things through and get their questions answered.

I also work within the Patient Education Program, and I do one to one patient education about how their spinal cord injury has affected their body as well as help out with the group sessions if needed. Part of my role is also to talk to and help the family of patients within the centre.  Three times a year that unit holds a family and friends morning where they can either join in person or remotely to hear lots of information about the three charities, how the spinal unit works on the rehab process works.  Spinal Cord Injury affects not only the person but their family and friends so it is important they have access to all the support and advice that is available.

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