Foto principal de la recaudación de fondos

Help David to continue to live well into old age

David Patience es la persona que organiza esta recaudación de fondos.

Donación protegida

Two facts:

1. I consider myself lucky.

2. None of us are getting any younger.

What an idiot (ME!) hahaha

I broke my neck in a car accident almost 20 years ago. It was a beautiful red Alfa Romeo, and my entire family were in the car - my wife, our 2 young children and our chocolate labrador. Luckily, the car and I took the impact of the crash and the rest of the family walked away unscathed. Including the dog. Although she ran.

I was 37 at the time. And I spent 11 months and 9 days in hospital.

There were some very dark times at the beginning, but also fun with the nurses (night shift predominantly) playing poker and competitive karaoke, and takeaway meals of all denominations. But what helped me most was the selfless support of my wife, Kate. Ok, and my wider family, but mostly my beautiful, strong, relentless wife.

The fracture in my neck was at C5/6 so I am now quadriplegic, but reasonably able still. An inch or two higher and life would have been very different. I perhaps wouldn't be able to use my arms, use a manual wheelchair, feed myself, drink by myself, work, go to gigs, paint, or play my LPs.

I’ve been an accountant all my working life and luckily this is something I can still do following my accident. With a young family to support, I was back at work almost 2 years after my release from hospital and I’ve worked ever since. Most recently, my workplace was within walking distance, so whenever it was dry I would push the 20 minutes there and back, enabling me to maintain a moderate level of fitness.

However, the recent covid-lockdown-working from home malarkey turned my kitchen into my office and helped me fall into the trap of sitting at my kitchen table from 8 am to 7 pm, with no real break, no exercise and horrendous posture. And then a hospital stay with something quite nasty (I learned afterwards) over Christmas 2022 got me thinking - I need to live well into old age so I can continue to enjoy gigs, festivals, road trips, city visits, painting, and continue working too.

My plan was to take 6 to 9 months off, join a gym, do more outside pushing and more painting to fix my mental and physical health before it all got too late. And regain my freedom!

I’m now 3 months in, attending Neurokinex in Bristol 3 times a week, daily strength training at home with fortnightly face-to-face sessions with Active Potential Therapy in Chippenham. I’m fitter, stronger, my transfers are getting easier, I’ve lost weight and I’m sleeping better.

Putting in the work!

And zero stress.

One thing that still defeats me, and always will, is my inability to push uphill, over rough ground, over grass, cobbles (OMG!), sand, or longer distances, so could never be truly independent outdoors in my manual wheelchair.

Just look at this guy (ME!) scared of the Adriatic...