Almost a year ago to the day, my friend Hiroki had a cycling accident that changed his life forever. 

 Hiroki sustained an injury to his thoracic spine that has left him paraplegic. Although he was fortunate to have received excellent care by the Major Trauma and Spinal team’s at St Mary’s Hospital, London, it wasn’t enough to undo the damage to his spinal cord.

 It has been an incomprehensibly challenging year for Hiroki and his wife Rachel. As a Trauma and Orthopaedic surgical trainee, I've been involved with the surgical and clinical aspect of looking after patients like Hiroki who have sustained spinal trauma, but seeing what they have been through this year has motivated me to try and do something more proactive to help change the status quo. 

Spinal Research is the UK’s leading charity funding medical research around the world to develop effective treatments for paralysis caused by spinal cord injury. Helping to fund research is the only way to make any advancement towards finding a way to better understand spinal cord injury and maybe one day treat it.

 Spinal Research UK receives no government funding and so relies solely on public donations. Any donation, large or small, would therefore make a huge difference to the future of clinical treatments following spinal trauma.  

If you'd like to find out more about Hiroki and Rachel's journey this last year, follow them on instagram @hiro_myhero_ to see why it is so important to donate to Spinal Research today.

James