Speech Rams 14th - Go your own way. 

Most of us unknowingly are made to think we are invincible it’s not until your faced with real difficult times and you realise what is precious about life.

On the 8^th October I thought I was untouchable-well most couldn’t catch me. But I feared no one on the pitch that day until I was laying there and couldn’t get up my only fear was “I’m broken, what about Lillie & Freddie”. Laying on the metal slab in the hospital hearing the doctors muttering outside to come in and say the words “you will never walk again” I felt Vulnerable.

I hadn’t just lost my legs, I lost myself – My independence. 

Independence is such a fundamental need, no one likes to be reliant on other people. No one likes to feel a burden on other people, but it’s so important to board you own path. Push past those barriers and beat down those expectations then beat them down again. To be able to live the life that you want to live. I think it’s fantastic when somebody is able to do that, and we can all help do that too.

After being on a tail end of a catastrophic injury and seeing what I’ve seen, I actually feel privileged to be able to understand certain aspect of how much more people have to struggle more than myself in our rugby community. I Suppose having met many Injured Players I saw a lot who was a lot worse than me. I started looking at what I have not what I haven’t got. I could now do most daily tasks by myself I am achieving an independent life again – this is thanks to the IPF again.

From coming from say a past that had a lot of big changes quiet regularly. The IPF helped me build a great amount of strong resilience, the chair has provided me with empathy towards others who have spent harder journeys in there and seeing some at their most vulnerable. 

• Skiing
• Abseiling
• Archery
• scuba diving 
  
• Battleback weekend 
• Tickets to Twickenham games and so much more

Supporting injured players with equipment, hospital appointments, education, retraining & rehabilitation. Thank you for listening to me today and all of your support, if you could spare any change today of even if you cant spare change you can support the Injured Players Foundation by following and sharing them on social media and sharing our team JustGiving page!