Survivor blog: From breaking my back to launching my first App

I didn’t know when I got up on that lovely sunny Sunday 24th February that the course of my life was going to change forever!  An accident on my motorbike would leave me paralysed at 11am.  I would find myself in the darkest place I could ever imagine.  Who would have predicted that sport would be my life saver and road to recovery.  It had such a profound impact of my mental and physical health I decided to develop an App that will make sports and social events easier to share and search for especially for disabled people. I don’t want people to lock themselves away like I nearly did, I want them to be able to log onto Perfect Imperfections and find something that will keep them active both physically and mentally. I was dealt a bad hand but I’m still smiling and I want to something good to come from what I have been through!

Coming back from the gym on my new motorbike while most of my friends were still hanging from the night before, I was feeling pretty good.  But this feeling was short lived.  I lost control of my bike and the next thing I remember is being surrounded by strangers and paramedics - I was underneath a car at the side of the road.  The car was lifted off me by a group of unfamiliar faces.  My clothes were cut away and I was laying buck naked in the road in all my glory!  I have a vivid recollection of a paramedic telling me he was going to insert a catheter into me and it would probably hurt.  I knew something was terribly wrong when I heard myself saying “it’s ok mate, I can’t feel anything”. The paramedic covered my eyes as the air ambulance landed in the road next to where I was laying and I was airlifted to the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel.

My family arrived and met almost immediately with the devastating news that my injuries were “life changing” (a term I would hear often from this day forward), I was paralysed and would never walk again – I had severed my spinal cord. Other injuries included a broken neck, broken back, shattered arm, broken femur, broken ribs and punctured lung.  An amazing array of injuries for someone without an obvious scratch on his body! That afternoon, high on morphine, I joked with friends about qualifying for the next Paralympics.

Monday morning saw the start of 3 days of operations to fix the broken bones.  First the shattered arm, then the more straightforward leg.  They had to stabilise my breathing before I could be turned to operate and repair the break in my back.  I was finally woken up on the Wednesday evening in intensive care surrounded by close family and friends.  Heavily drugged and disorientated, I struggled to understand why I was in hospital. I just wanted to go home – why couldn’t I just go home??

The days that followed were like being in a scary dream.  I didn’t want to close my eyes as I hallucinated from the many painkillers.  Minutes felt like hours.  I felt alone and frightened.  What was going to happen to me? I wish I had died in the accident. I didn’t want to live like this……..

Exactly 3 weeks after the accident I was transferred to Stanmore where I would begin 12 weeks of rehabilitation, after which time I would be allowed home, hopefully better equipped to get on with my life. 

The team assigned to me at Stanmore were amazing and the only thing which held me back initially was caution over weight-bearing on my shattered arm but as soon as I got the all clear to use it my progress surpassed expectations and I was discharged on 10 June (15 weeks after the accident).

It’s the day you have been working towards and longing for but the day you “walk” I use the word descriptively, back through the front door brings home to you that you walked out that door 15 weeks ago and are finally coming home but in a wheelchair.  Reality sets in that life is very different now and the real recovery is just beginning.  

I pushed friends and family away and made excuses not to go out.  I wouldn’t call anyone because I felt I was a liability – they could go anywhere, why should they have to go to a particular pub just because it had a disabled toilet. 

I wasn’t working initially when I left hospital so I had a lot of time to sit around and think about what had happened and what I couldn’t do. I had been introduced to wheelchair tennis just before I left hospital so I joined a club and played a few sessions a week.  Playing tennis became an escape for me.  I forgot about all the crap and I was happy again.

Over the coming months I went back to work but this time in the office.  I had previously been a highway maintenance operative and HGV driver so obviously that was now out of the question.  Once I had an income again I could pay for private tennis coaching and The Dan Maskell Trust helped fund a tennis wheelchair for me.  

I searched Google and the AppStore for other sports I could try but found it hard to find activities I could do near where I lived. Eager to encourage me to play more tennis and find people in the same position as me, my mum arranged a wheelchair tennis taster session at our local leisure centre (David Lloyds in Enfield).  She contacted the LTA and managed to get Jordanne Whiley to appear as our guest.  She demonstrated her skills, gave us tips and a talked about her career in wheelchair tennis.

Those who attended all said they too found it hard to find sports activities and events for disabled people. I started to think about creating an app to share and search for such events. Last year I went out to the French Open in Paris, this was the decider for me! I was going to go for it – build an App to share events and search for events close to where you live. 

Ben's App helps disabled people find sports events in their area

Over the last 6 months I have been working alongside a developer to build Perfect Imperfections.  The first version was launched in the App Store on the 3rd anniversary of my accident, a significant milestone.  There is plenty of scope to develop and refine the App once finances allow but I am happy that it is a good start and gets us on the map.

The night before we launched I also heard that I had been short listed for coaching for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics - so things are really looking up!

Slowly but reassuringly more and more people are downloading the App, setting up profiles and sharing events.  I’m really looking forward to the future now and hope I can help people stay active, get into sports and enjoy their lives just like me!!

The last 3 years have been life changing in so many ways. I am delighted with the job our tech team has done with Perfect Imperfections and hope it inspires and connects many people in similar situations to myself.

For more information, please visit Perfect Imperfections or download from the AppStore

 Thanks for reading!

Published 31st March 2016

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