A Journey of a 1000 miles starts with a single step

A story of recovery from a severe head injury

I had been a rock climber for 10 years when a serious climbing accident in 2003 caused me to re-evaluate my leisure pursuits

In pursuit of widening my climbing experiences I used to spend most, if not all, my spare time in climbing activities. I met Janet who was to become my partner, in life and climbing, on one of the first climbing trips I went on. Janet was also the instigator of some of out more exotic trips and our learning to scuba dive.  In fact if Janet had not suggested it, I would not have climbed in some of the more notable foreign locations.

Together we have climbed, dived, mountain biked and skied in a variety of places around the world.  In 1999/2000 we took 6 months off work for climbing and diving around the world.

Then in early 2003 I had a serious fall whilst ice climbing in North Wales, suffering severe head injuries and multiple fractures.

I was discharged from hospital after 5 weeks and I attended the Royal National Hospital for Rhumatic Disease in Bath as an outpatient for 7 months where there is a specialist brain injury unit.

I took up running, initially as a means to get back to some level of fitness after the accident. In doing this I have raised nearly £8000 for Headway - the brain injury association.

I raised these funds by running my first marathon in 2004, then took part in the 40 mile High Peak Marathon in 2005.
In 2006 I have done something that should have been easier, not in winter or the dark.  I ran the Pembrokeshire Coast Path at the end of May,  ‘only’ 186 miles which I did over 6 days.

To continue the escalating difficulty of my fund rasing efforts for Headway I had to find something for 2007. This was 3 Peaks, 2 Legs and a Bike, a run of the 3 Peaks (Snowdon, Scafell and Ben Nevis) and cycle the 540 miles between them in 6 days.

Since 2008, working 5 days has neccessarily curtailed the training I could do for a major fund raising effort. I do have something in mind, not a multi-day effort but challenging enough. Since 2009, I have been trying to improve my front crawl with an Long Distance Triathlon in mind. The Long distance triathlons are refered to as ironman distance, but I would probabaly not do an Ironman event, these tend to have >1000 entrants. I will be looking to do a much smaller event.

In 2012 I have done a 100 mile bike ride organised by the Association for Glycogen Storage Diseases with a work colleague Tim Corso. Doing an organised event means that I can do this while working full time.

In January 2013 I completed a Personal Trainer course with Premier International. I had decided that training for an Ironman or long distance triathlon event would be too challenging while working full time, but I could usefully further my growing interest in exercise by becoming a trainer. Since qualifying I have been carrying out training for individuals and running circuit trainnig classes in my spare time.

In 2014 I qualified as a sports massage therapist to further grow my quaifications in the health and fitness industry. Since qualification my primary focus has been on massage therapy with only occasional personal training, I resigned from my IT job and work full time as a sports massage therapist.