I told wife to leave me after freak pool accident paralysed me… 3 miracles saved my life, says Paralympics’ Ed Jackson
LYING in his hospital bed unable to move anything apart from his head, rugby star Ed Jackson was told he’d never walk again.
The sportsman was paralysed from the neck down following a freak accident at a party in 2017.
But just a year later Ed, 35, had climbed 3,560ft tall Mount Snowdon in Wales after defying all the medical experts.
More importantly he walked his wife Lois down the aisle on the planned wedding date in an emotional ceremony.
Together the couple set up a charity helping other people who’d suffered serious injuries, including military veterans.
Now Ed is planning to scale 17,000ft high Mount Kenya with other members of the Millimetres 2 Mountains (M2M) Foundation.
This week a deeply moving documentary titled The Mountain Within Me will be released telling how the former Wasps and Dragons rugby union player turned what was nearly a life ending moment into a life changing one.
Speaking to The Sun, Ed, who is part of Channel 4’s Paralympic Games presenting team, says: “I think the charity saved me.
“That feeling on top of Snowdon of some good coming for other people from your terrible situation was an addictive one.
“I can genuinely look at my accident and go, that was a good thing that happened because look what it’s doing for me.”
Freak accident
Seven years ago, life seemed to be perfect for Ed.
He was planning his wedding to Lois and the Bath-born Englishman was making a name for himself as a number eight playing rugby in Wales.
That all changed on the first hot day of 2017 when he ripped off his T-shirt and jumped into the waterfall in his friend’s swimming pool.
What Ed thought was the deep end, was in fact the shallow one.
He recalls: “I wasn’t really concentrating and dived in where the waterfall hit the water so you couldn’t see the bottom of the pool
“I hit my head on the bottom of the pool very hard. I dislocated the bottom of my neck, C6, C7 vertebrae, the disc exploded and rendered me immediately completely paralysed from the shoulders down.”
If it hadn’t been for his dad Mark and friends rescuing him, Ed would have drowned.
His greatest fortune was that his doctor father knew to float the stricken player to the surface rather than pulling him out.
Ed comments: “The fact that he didn’t try and pull me out of the pool, which is what I would have done if it was my mate, but floated me there until the spinal cord can go underneath, definitely saved my life.”
I was saying you should leave me because she didn’t sign up for this. And she stood by me like a rock the whole time, which was amazing
Ed on Lois
Any further sharp movement would probably have ended any chance of recovery.
Ed had to be resuscitated three times in the ambulance and was fortunate that top neurosurgeon Neil Barua was on call at Southmead hospital in Bristol on a Saturday night to operate.
He says: “If my dad hadn’t found me in the pool, if the paramedics hadn’t resuscitated me in the ambulance, if Neil Barua wasn’t on call and I wasn’t so close to Southmead, I wouldn’t be sat here today, or I wouldn’t have walked in here today.”
Little hope
Following seven hours on the operating table, Ed woke up in intensive care unable to move.
The prognosis left little hope.
Ed continues: “The surgeon had told me I had a complete injury, which means a complete cross-section of the spinal cord is not transmitting signals or it’s died so you have no scope for recovery.”
Friends and family trooped in, shock etched on their face at his terrible state.
Believing he was paralysed Ed told Lois, a life coach, that he would set her free from their commitments.
But his fiancee insisted she would never leave him.
Ed recalls: “I was saying you should leave me because she didn’t sign up for this. And she stood by me like a rock the whole time, which was amazing.
“And she became a person to really focus my energy towards getting better for.”
Even so at night, alone with his thoughts he wished he could die.
Ed admits: “There were times where I had those thoughts that this would probably be a lot easier for everyone, not just for me, for everyone, if I wasn’t here anymore.”
Not giving up hope, Ed kept trying to move his digits.
Seven days after surgery his toe did wiggle.
Ed says: “I just remember shouting for my mum to come in, and I was like, ‘my toe’s moving, my toe’s moving.’
“I thought it might have been a spasm to start with but it wasn’t. And then, of course, I didn’t want to stop moving it.
“But what it meant was there was still a connection past the level of my injury.”
Mountain to climb
After four months of intense physio he was able to stand up and five months later he could walk without the use of a wheelchair.
A year after the accident he spent nine painful hours walking up Snowdon even though he still has serious injuries.
Ed’s condition is known as spastic hemiplegia, leaving him unable to lift his left leg properly and without any sense of temperature or pain on his right side.
There were times where I had those thoughts that this would probably be a lot easier for everyone, not just for me, for everyone, if I wasn’t here anymore
Ed Jackson
He nearly fainted on his wedding day because he overheats so easily.
Ed can only “pinch grip” with his right hand and limited bowel control means he has “90 seconds to find a toilet”.
Given all those problems, walking over ice crevices and through thigh high snow up treacherous mountains sounds like a bad idea.
Yet that is what Ed attempted with one of the M2M charity beneficiaries two years ago.
Along with former soldier Ben Halms, who has been a paraplegic since hitting the ground at 75mph after his parachute malfunctioned, they tried to get to the top of 23,400ft high Himlung Himal in Nepal carrying heavy backpacks.
Ben turned back at nearly 20,000ft, while Ed had to abandon his attack on the summit knowing it would not be safe to attempt it.
Treacherous weather left him huddling on the side of the mountain, spending 36 hours outside of a tent before help could reach him.
At one point he turned to one fellow climber and joked: “Lois is going to kill me if we die.”
What the documentary shows is that sometimes we should be grateful for getting close to our ultimate goal, rather than feeling disappointed if we don’t reach the summit.
Ed comments: “I’m just really grateful I’ve got to a point where I can be active. It might not be pretty and I wobble around everywhere, but I can sort of get those endorphins in the same way I did before playing rugby.”
Since then, Ed has worked on building up his technical climbing skills, tackling hair raising cliff edges rather than going for the highest peaks.
Paralympics Presenters
Rose Ayling-Ellis – The Strictly Come Dancing winner is the first ever deaf sports presenter on British TV. The former EastEnders actor is also a champion for British Sign Language.
Clare Balding – Award-winning broadcaster and journalist who began her career as a jockey before moving into TV, covering horse-racing. She also hosted this year’s Olympic games for the BBC.
Ade Adepitan – The former wheelchair basketball player was part of the Great Britain team that won bronze at the 2004 Summer Paralympics. He started his hosting career as one of the main presenters of the London 2012 Paralympics on Channel 4 and again four years later in Rio.
Ellie Simmonds – The swimming champion is the proud owner of five Paralympic gold medals, won in 2008, 2012 and 2016. She was given an MBE in the 2009 New Year Honours, and was the youngest person to ever be handed this accolade at just 14.
Ed Jackson – During his career, the former No 8 played for Wasps, The Gwent Dragons and London Welsh. He was paralysed in 2017.
Billy Monger – The former go-kart champion known as ‘Billy Whizz’ competed in F4 racing and had three podium finishes in his first season, at 17. He was injured in a horrific crash in 2017 and has both legs amputated.
Vick Hope – The Radio 1 has seen a meteoric rise to fame over the last decade. Calvin Harris’ wife is now part of the Channel 4 line-up of hosts for the Paralympics.
Josh Pugh – The comedian is known for Mock The Week, 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown, and Never Mind The Buzzcocks.
Along with Mount Kenya, he is aiming to ascend a summit in Kyrgyzstan that no one, able bodied or not, has ever reached.
He explains: “I want a team of people, disabled adventurers, people with disabilities, to do the first big ascent of a mountain.
“Then you get to name it.”
The charity, which he set up five years ago, takes eight people every year onto a three year-long programme of support.
It also organises Together Outdoors walks for people dealing with “trauma.”
Helping them has changed the life of a man whose focus was once winning rugby matches.
Ed concludes: “I am grateful to be able to just walk down the stairs, never mind win trophies and match awards.”
The Mountain Within Me is in cinemas on August now.