Ed Jackson was warned by doctors that he’d never walk again after suffering a severe neck injury in April 2017, never mind continue a rugby career at the top of the professional game.
The former Wasps No. 8 was approaching the end of his second season with Newport Dragons when he dived into the shallow end of a swimming pool while at a barbecue with friends and family.
Hitting his head on the bottom of the pool, the ex- Bath academy starlet dislocated his C6/C7 vertebrae, as well as shattering a disc that caused shards to slice the left side of his spinal cord.
He was a quadriplegic aside from some limited movement in his right arm, and doctors initially gave a dim assessment regarding his chances of recovery.
Jackson had to be resuscitated three times in the ambulance en route to the hospital and “knew from the off” his playing days were over, but he now considers that day a “blessing in disguise.”
The 32-year-old—whose retired GP father had to help pull him from the pool—told The Sun he was relaxed at first despite the severity of his injuries: “I remember cracking jokes at one of my friends who was stood on the side of the pool, like he'd seen a ghost.
“It was probably quite a lot more graphic for him watching me - I'd lost all movement and sensation, and my head was bleeding everywhere - but, looking out, I remember him looking really pale and I was like, ‘You’d have thought you'd broken your neck, not me!’”
Jackson—who recently published his autobiography, ‘Lucky’—explained that he felt losing his best friend at 23 helped prepare him to cope with this new tragedy.
It wasn’t until Jackson’s fiancee at the time—now wife—Lois made the trip from Cardiff to see him at hospital in Bristol that it dawned as to how his life had been altered forever.
“It really hit me when Lois arrived in hospital,” he said.
“When she turned up, I couldn’t stop apologising to her, because I knew the potential implications to both our lives moving forward, I then knew how serious it was.”
The Somerset native spent the initial part of his recovery in intensive care, losing much of the muscle mass he’d added to his 17-stone frame over the course of his career.
Fast-forward four years and Jackson has climbed Mount Snowdon, trekked through the Himalayas and the Alps, as well as ascending the height of Mount Everest via his parents’ stairs during the first lockdown.
It wasn’t that long ago Jackson’s body was used as a means to earn a living and was, in a way, his reason for being.
He considers that ‘rugby identity’ to now be “a load of rubbish” and is grateful for how his eyes were opened following his 2017 accident: “One of the scariest things at the start was having that taken away, and my identity removed.
"But actually, in the long run, it's been a blessing in disguise, because it's removed that lens on my life and made me start from scratch again, and made me go out and explore who I really am and what I actually enjoy.
“So the biggest realisation for me has been you don't have to live the life you're told, you can go and live the life you want, find things you're passionate about, follow those dreams and work on them. Because you're way more capable than you realise.”
The former Premiership player was wheelchair-bound to begin with and had to learn how to walk again, undergoing numerous surgeries and physio on his road to rehabilitation.
But with the help of his friends, family and partner Lois, Jackson is conquering life’s obstacles in a different manner, swapping the rugby pitch for far loftier heights.
Climbing Snowdon was the first of those tasks and a way for Jackson to mark the first anniversary of his accident, choosing to raise money for Restart, a charity that helps rehabilitate injured rugby players.
He still needed leg splints and walking sticks to assist him, but Jackson raised £22,000 for Restart while recapturing some of his identity he thought lost: “I wanted to try and send a message to other people who've been given a negative prognosis that what the doctors said doesn't necessarily have to be the case.
“I just wanted to be an example of hope to the few people it might reach.”
“It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done up to that point, but I had the most incredible weekend.
“I remember being stood on the summit, looking out and just thinking, ‘Wow, I feel like myself again’.”
Jackson and his partner later formed their own charity, Millimetres 2 Mountains, in 2019 as they look to aid “people who are facing mental health challenges as a result of encountering adversity.”
The pair are partnered with other charities—including those that helped Jackson during his rehabilitation—and have raised more than £50,000 between them.
Having grown accustomed to entertaining thousands of people at a time on the field, Jackson is now benefiting a much larger audience by retelling his story on a grander scale.
“It made me realise I’m way more capable in different directions than I thought I was,” he added.
Through his newfound work as an author, keynote speaker, rugby pundit and television personality, Jackson is helping others realise they’re capable of more, too.
