Three years ago, Ed Jackson suffered a freak accident which left him with a serious spinal injury and, subsequently, paralysis. Now, the former player is reaching new heights in an inspiring endeavour with charity Wings for Life.
Jackson played for his local club Bath for three years before switching to Doncaster Knights and then London Welsh. He then made a big move to Wasps before going over the Severn to join Newport Gwent Dragons.
It was during his stint in Wales that Jackson fractured his C6/C7 after diving into the shallow end of a swimming pool, damaging his spinal cord.
Jackson has since become an ambassador for the Wings for Life charity, which specialises in spinal cord research and seeks to find cures for spinal injuries through world-class scientific research and clinical trials around the globe.
Jackson revealed that he is making better progress than both he and his doctors anticipated and is able to move his hands and legs, albeit slightly. Confined to a wheelchair for a year, Jackson is also able to walk, using leg splints.
It is through this method that Jackson has achieved something incredible: climbing the equivalent of 8,848 metres (the height of the peak of the Himalayas in India) using his parents’ staircase at home in Bath.
Taking four days and documented live on Instagram, Jackson began his trek by camping overnight at the bottom of the stairs and subsequently climbed 89,056 individual steps and 5,566 flights of stairs in total.
Jackson hasn’t just entered this climbing attempt recently, he is already an established mountaineer and plans to become the first quadriplegic to climb Mount Everest.
It has attracted a lot of attention since then and was no doubt a strong incentive for those competing in the annual Wings for Life World Run, which took place all over the world.
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