AGAINST ALL ODDS

At 27, professional rugby player Ed Jackson was told he would never walk again. A freak accident, involving a swimming pool and a miscalculated dive, broke his neck and crushed his spinal cord. Jackson had to be resuscitated three times and spent weeks in intensive care – for the first of those, he couldn’t so much as twitch a muscle.

But rugby players are made from stern stuff, and three years on from the accident, Jackson’s recovery is nothing short of miraculous. Defying the predictions of even the most optimistic specialists, the former London Wasps and Bath man has not only learned to walk again, he’s found a new calling: mountaineering.

Men’s Fitness: How did the accident happen?

Ed Jackson: “In April 2017, I was having a weekend off rugby, because I was recovering from a shoulder injury. I was at a family friend’s house and dived into what I thought was the deep end of their pool, but it turned out to be shallow and I hit my head. The impact dislocated the C6 and C7 vertebrae in my neck, which effectively broke my neck and rendered me paralysed from the shoulders down.

“Luckily, my dad and one of my mates were in the pool to drag me to the surface and make sure I didn’t drown. I had