Having been a fit man for 61 years (with a few blips) I was severely injured in a cycling accident in 2019 and am now paralysed below the neck. This blog is intended as a record of my experience since the accident. I try to keep it light-hearted but this is not always possible given the circumstances. The posts are organised with the latest post at the top so if you want to read from the beginning you will need to scroll down.
It is possible to piece together what happened to me from correspondence with the race organisers, medical staff and cyclists who stopped to help. Of the day of the event – April 27 – I have no memories other than parking my car, shivering at the starting point with thousands of other cyclists and then dropping my warm jacket with my wife at a roundabout in Pollenca. […]
I suppose, given my lack of output I should lower my sights a little and just tell you something about a typical day on the Phillips Hill ward – the rehab ward of the national spinal injuries unit here in Glasgow where I have spent the last few months.
On most days the day begins with breakfast at 8 AM followed by a wash in bed. I have opted out of the hospital offering of cereal and cold toast in favour of muesli, yoghurt and a banana. […]
It’s more than a month since I wrote my last update. Family and friends continue to do an outstanding job on the visiting front – delivering cakes, cookies, an astonishing Greek salad among a wide selection of other goodies. Your email messages are a great support too.
Over the past month my focus has narrowed from simply getting through each day to the practical matters which will allow me to leave the hospital. These turn out to be more challenging than I might have hoped. There are three problems to be solved. […]
Somehow this appears to have fallen off the blog, so I’m republishing it. Apologies if you’ve read it before. Originally posted around 19 Sept 2019.
Since 2012 I’ve cycled more than 20,000 km around the UK and Europe on roads and bike trails. I’ve struggled up brutal Alpine climbs and, on occasion, plugged in my headphones for tedious flat rides along the side of European rivers. I’ve managed to do this without incurring any significant injury riding my touring bike, a collection of road bikes and an old bike for negotiating Edinburgh’s cobbled streets and tram tracks. […]
It’s now the beginning of September 2019. At the end of April, I entered a closed-road cycling event along with around 8000 other people. The plan was to cycle a hundred miles across the beautiful mountains and roads of Majorca. The plan didn’t quite work out. I ended up in hospital with a vertebrate high on my spine broken into three pieces and my spinal cord severed. It was a freak accident I was very unlucky to sustain and even luckier to survive. I require a ventilator to breathe today. […]
This is a picture of my bother Simon and I in the sunshine at Kelvingrove Park in Glasgow.
Esta es una foto de mi hermano Simon y yo al sol en el Parque Kelvingrove en Glasgow. […]