Living your dreams with spinal cord injury

Living your dreams with spinal cord injury

Photo by Andy Walker/SWNS

After an accident that left Andy Walker paralysed from the neck down at age 28, he was told that he couldn't do most things - which only made him want to prove everybody wrong!Now, nearly two decades later, he's a motivational speaker who helps design smart tech and regularly participates in extreme physical challenges around the world. He shares his story to raise awareness on World Spine Day.

"My life was going great. I was on a romantic getaway in India with my partner and went off for a swim at the beach, where I dove into the sea and hit a rock. I knew immediately that I'd broken my neck," Andy tells This Is MedTech. "There was no pain relief or medical equipment where I was. They kept telling me to give up and die."

Andy wasn't about to do that. He was transferred to a specialist hospital for spinal injuries, where he was put on a ventilator to help him breathe. A computed tomography (CT) scan - medical technology that uses X-rays to take detailed images and helps doctors make treatment decisions - showed that he had crushed his C4/C5 vertebrae. Surgery followed to realign that part of his spine. "I was told that I'd never come off the ventilator, but I was off it six weeks later."

According to the World Health Organization, over 15 million people are living with spinal cord injury (SCI). The severity of a person's injury and the location in the spinal cord determine the extent of their impairment. People with SCI experience total or partial loss of sensory and/or motor functions below the injury level.

"I came back to the UK facing all sorts of complications," he notes. "I was worried about not being able to do everyday simple things and not being me anymore. My mental health was suffering, especially as people kept telling me what I couldn't do. So, I decided to do something crazy and sign up for a week-long sailing course run by The Back-Up Trust charity."

Nobody with his level of injury had ever completed the course, but Andy successfully sailed solo across Lake Bassenthwaite in Northwest England. This was his first of many physical challenges including mountain climbing, triathlons, cycling across Kenya on a chin-controlled quad bike and most recently, cycling the length of the UK to raise funds for charity. He also threw himself into volunteer work and in 2019 he was awarded an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) for services to disability.

Andy says that every aspect of medical technology has supported him over the years. "So many things have literally saved my life, from blood tests to X-rays. Because of the nature of my injury, it can be very difficult to work out what's going on with me," he explains.

He also emphasises how critical smart tech has been in allowing him to be more independent in his day-to-day life. He controls his wheelchair using his chin and has a smart home which allows him to do everything from switching on the kettle to using his phone. He's also been involved in several projects to design products that help people live more independently. Despite his love of tech, Andy says: "It's really the human touch that's important." Finding role models has been a key part of his recovery and now he's passionate about being a role model for others.

Andy's philosophy is: "You've only got one life. It's important to live your dreams and push boundaries. Your mind is the only limit. Once you've got past that, there's no limit."

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