Our friend Ed suffered a life altering injury last April playing football. We are going with him to the Oval this summer to watch the ODI between England and Australia, and so beforehand will be re-donning the fancy dress and running to the ground from Lords.

As a group, we would take a yearly trip to Test cricket grounds across the country to watch a couple of days of cricket. We've seen England crowned the #1 Test team in 2011, Kevin Pietersens 149 vs South Africa on Super Saturday in 2012, England beat Australia at Edgbaston in 2015, plus many more centuries, wickets and England batting collapses too. We're delighted to be doing it again.

What we are also delighted with is the amazing care and attention in aiding his rehabilitation and transitioning to a new way life given to him by all the staff at Stoke Mandeville Hospital. The research and understanding done through Stoke Mandeville Spinal Research has helped Ed, and in doing this with hope to help them help others a bit more.

Paralysis is a fact of life for the 40,000 people living with spinal cord injury, and it can happen to anyone. For the majority of people, being unable to walk is just another challenge to add to the many other difficulties they face on a daily basis. Pressure ulcers, urinary tract infections and pain are all a daily threat to quality of life, making it hard to 'get on with life'. SMSR is tackling these day to day challenges through research to ensure that individual's with spinal cord injury have the best quality of life possible.