A young man was left paralysed from the neck down after diving into the sea and striking a rock with his head.
Callum Jones, then aged 20, had been playing cricket with friends at Freshwater East, in Pembrokeshire, last July when the freak accident left him with a broken neck and spinal cord damage.
The now 21-year-old, Pennar in Pembroke Dock, immediately knew something was wrong and could only float face down, hoping someone would come to rescue him.
He is now undergoing daily intensive physiotherapy at the spinal rehab unit in Llandough, Cardiff, reports Wales Online.
"I jumped into the water and headbutted a rock. I was just floating in the water then and couldn't move anything," Callum said.
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"I panicked to start with and then I realised I couldn't move anything so I just lay back and hoped someone would come."
Luckily, his pals noticed he wasn't moving and tried to turn him over, with Callum only able to utter "help me".
He was rolled onto a paddleboard and taken to shore.
"I was in a bit of shock, really, I didn't know what was going on," said Callum.
He added: "I knew I'd done something that was not good."
The young man was rushed to Glangwilli Hospital in Carmarthen where doctors told him he'd shattered C5, a bone in his neck, and he would have to be airlifted to Cardiff for emergency surgery.
Surgeons removed the broken bone and replaced it with a bone graft from his hip and he was placed in a coma for five days.
It would be another eight days before he could breathe on his own and Callum started to learn the full extent of his injuries.
"I didn't have a clue what was going on," he said.
Callum was just weeks away from starting a welding apprenticeship that September, but said those months had "not been great".
"Probably at the very start when they said you might not get anything back at all, you could just be essentially nothing - when I first heard that, that was hard," he recalls.
"I am quite lucky. Normally if you break C4 you're not able to breathe by yourself and I was C5. So a little bit higher and it would have been a different story."
It was 18 days before he was able to eat any food, and opted for ice cream with his hands wrapped in splints to keep them in position.
In the first eight weeks, he lost more than two stone due to muscle wastage.
"I couldn't move anything to start with," Callum continued.
"But I've just got to get back to as normal as I can. There's no point dwelling on it, is there. I'm not one to feel sorry for myself. Id rather just get up and crack on with it."
The doctors are reluctant to give Callum a definitive prognosis because spinal injuries are notoriously difficult to predict.
"At the very start, it wasn't looking good for anything.
"They said don't expect to ever be able to do anything again, but they said there was a chance. As long as there's a chance, I'll focus on that, that's all you can do."
Callum's family, including mum Joanna, dad Dean and partner Phoebe, as well as his three siblings, are by his side for support.
He has also set up an Instagram account charting his progress.
Callum was transferred to the spinal unit after 48 days in hospital.
Two months after the accident, he had already regained minor movement in his legs.
He is currently mastering sitting up by himself, while also using a special physio bike which helps move his legs and a tilt board.
He said his leg muscles are weak from lack of usage, while the nerves in the spinal cord aren't sending signals, so repetition of certain movements is key.
On day 85, he stood up for the first time holding his own weight in a standing machine. It was the first time he'd stood for 12 weeks and he said he got "all dizzy" and thought he would pass out.
Due to his progress, Callum was able to get home for Christmas.
"I just chilled out in the house, few beers, nice food," he said.
Follow Callum's progress on his Instagram page callum_spinalrehab21.
