A Scottish daredevil has beat doctors’ dire predictions that he may never walk again following a stunt that went wrong that saw him split both of his kneecaps.
After attempting a backflip as a party trick, Lee Mitchell was rushed to hospital and wept after he was told he’d be lucky to walk again.
Now eight years later, the adrenaline junkie is back doing what he loves - hurling himself off coastal cliffs into the North Sea.
The 29-year-old joiner, who has had a remarkable recovery, has discovered the thrill of cliff jumping, and now somersaults more than 50ft from rocky ledges at Arbroath, Angus.
Discovering a UK cliff jumping group on Facebook was a game-changing moment for Lee, who works as a joiner for his dad's company.
"I watched some videos and it clicked to that this was one sport where you can outdo yourself," he recalls.
"People will call us idiots and stupid and make out we are turning up at a cliff and throwing ourselves off it but they don't know the preparation we go through."
The RNLI strongly discourages the activity of cliff jumping or tombstoning' as it is sometimes referred to, saying: "The activity is inherently dangerous due to water depth changes caused by tides as well as hidden, submerged items such as rocks that can cause serious injury, paralysis or death if hit."
And though his jumps have been criticised by the RNLI for being dangerous, Lee has organised a relay swim from Arbroath to Auchmithie on August 28 to raise money for the Arbroath branch. He will be joined by a group of seven other cliff jumpers to take on the challenge.
"He's got more b***s than brains," one onlooker commented after seeing him perform a double flip into the sea in May 2020.
Lee's move to cliff jumping in late 2019 marked the next stage of a journey that began on his summer holidays.
When parents Brian, 51, and Janey, 52, took Lee and his younger brother Jed, 27, to the Canary Islands as a child he would spend hours on the trampoline practising his moves.
Lee suffered a major physical setback at the age of 22 that could have left him unable to walk again.
He was in the Station Bar in Arbroath when one of his friends tried a backflip as a party trick.
"I wanted to show him how he was doing it wrong so we cleared the space and I tried a half-hearted backflip."
The extent of Lee's mishap was only discovered when he woke up the following morning with "knees like bowling balls".
He was taken to hospital where it was established that he had split both of his kneecaps.
A surgeon wired his knees together to provide stability but the outlook was gloomy.
"In the hospital bed the doctor said I'd be lucky to walk again," Lee recalls. "I remember bursting into tears.
"I had such an active lifestyle and thought it was the end of that. At the time I couldn't be positive and see the light."
But Lee was determined to recover and underwent intensive physiotherapy while trying to swim and cycle.
He is now able to lead a normal life other than not being able to run long distances.
"I have got a second lease of life," he says.
"What I went through has inspired me to do what I'm doing now."
But Lee almost came a cropper in a jump that did not quite go to plan.
In June 2020 he undertook a 55ft double backflip from a spot known as the "diving board".
"It's a horrible jump. It's not a clean jump. You turn your back and can't see behind you," he says.
The incident had far-reaching consequences for Lee, who only began jumping into the sea from the cliffs in 2019. It was a close call and rocked me mentally," he says. "I did a trick and landed awkwardly. I was in a worried, depressed mood for weeks.
"The fear was eating me alive. It reached the point of not enjoying it and I almost wiped my hands of cliff jumping.
"It was a wake-up call telling me I am only human. I didn't jump again for six months and during that break I got the fear and had to relearn it.
"During this six months I understood just how extreme, scary and dangerous the stuff we do is."
It wasn't until his 29th birthday on December 30 - six months later - that Lee felt he could do another jump.
"When I stood on top of the cliff I had to take deep breaths. You never forget that close one.
"You have to be physically fit but the mental side is the hardest part of it."
