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Ed Jackson, the rugby pro who broke his neck diving into a pool, hopes to inspire by scaling Snowdon
I have been told several times that it is not medically advisable,” Ed Jackson says of his attempt to trek 3,560 feet up Snowdon on April 1.
“The doctors and physios know me well enough to know that I would do it anyway so they might as well get on board,” Jackson said. “The search and rescue have been warned.”
Jackson told Telegraph Sport that he was planning something of this nature last August. It was hard to know how serious he was at the time given that he was only then able to take a few paces without the use of his crutches. Now with the aid of a carbon-fibre foot splint, he can cover 6km. That is still less than half the distance he will travel up and down Wales’ highest mountain.
The purpose of the hike is threefold. Primarily, it is to raise money for Restart, the Rugby Players’ Association’s charity, which provides support to ill and injured rugby players. Restart funded the majority of Jackson’s rehabilitation costs and he is determined to pay back every last penny.
Secondly, it is to prove a point, not to the doctor that delivered the diagnosis that he would be in a wheelchair for the rest of the life, but to the thousands of people who are delivered a worst-case scenario every year and accept that as an unchangeable fact. This is why he has opened the challenge to members of the public and fellow spinal-injury victims. “I want to give people motivation who are told that they can’t do this or they can’t do that,” Jackson says.
Which brings us to the third goal: beating at least a couple of his former team-mates. Half the Dragons squad have signed up, but his real sights are set on best friends, Jon Mills and Billy Moss.
“Jon is about 150kg,” Jackson said. “He claims 120kg, but if you have one look at him then you know that is a lie. Billy has gone a similar way outwards since retiring. I keep telling them a cripple is going to beat him up there.”
By way of context, Jackson was tipped out of his wheelchair at Moss’s wedding, while Mills keeps claiming he is part of an elaborate insurance scam. “I love that,” Jackson said.
“No one wants to be treated differently. Literally the first time the boys visited me they were ripping the p--- out of me.”
Jackson has Brown-Sequard syndrome, which means the left half of his spinal cord is severely damaged, but the other half is unaffected. He accepts that he will probably never be able to walk without some kind of limp, but he has learnt to accept that fate and has become happier as a result.
“It used to take me getting a man of the match award to get that feeling of joy,” Jackson said. “Now I am happy just being able to walk to the car. Before I fixated on the things that I thought were unfair: I got injured, I got dropped, this is s---, that’s s---. Now I focus on what I have.
“When everything else got taken away from me: my job, my identity as a rugby player, my independence, my ability to move then what are you left with? Your friends and family. A lot of people didn’t have that in the spinal unit. In general, I am definitely happier now, but the lows are definitely lower.
“If this helps me become a person who is stronger than before the injury then it is suddenly no longer a bad thing. If I can help people along the way that is even better.”
Outside of his physio sessions, Jackson’s diary has slowly filled up with speaking engagements and charity commitments. He has become an ambassador for the Royal United Hospitals, where he started his road to recovery, and is hoping to fly to Nepal to support the establishment of a spinal-injuries unit by the Neverest Orthopaedics Foundation.
Jackson has also just started visiting Premiership academies to impart the largely unspoken reality that a career can disappear in a single instance. “I am not preaching,” Jackson said. “It is as if I am talking to my 21-year-old self. Don’t spend your whole life trying to get a 30-kill streak on Call of Duty or win 10 games of Fifa in a row. I have done it. The amount of time I wasted in coffee shops talking c--- when I could have learnt a new language. These things can end whenever and you have to be prepared for what’s next.”
His immediate focus is on a return to Old Deer Park on Saturday for a London Welsh v Ed Jackson XV game, which will precede the England v Wales match down the road at Twickenham.
Anyone without a ticket to the big encounter could do a lot worse than head along to Old Deer Park, in which £5 of every ticket will go to Restart, and meet a true inspiration.
For more information on Ed Jackson and Restart visit justgiving.com/fundraising/ edjackson8