How Ed Jackson Went From Spinal Injury to Mountaineering

In 2017, professional rugby player Ed Jackson was told he would likely never walk again after breaking his neck. Today, at 35, he is a mountain climber, despite the after-effects of the accident having left him with a permanent disability.

The reason Jackson and his wife Lois helped others after their own life-changing injuries is the subject of a new documentary, The Mountain Within Me, which tells the story of his accident and recovery.

Exactly a year after the accident, he climbed Yr Wyddfa, or Snowdon, the highest peak in Wales. The film also shows him tackling the Himalayas in Nepal and the Aiguille Dibona, a 3,100-metre peak in the French Alps.

But Jackson told BBC News he hopes the film will not be seen as what he calls “a hero’s journey”.

“I was blown away when I was offered the opportunity to make a film, but I was apprehensive about opening up our lives and those of the people we care about, there had to be a purpose behind it,” he explains.

“I hope the film shows that it’s not just about ‘what happens, he gets through it and then he climbs mountains’. It’s a constant journey, the things I have to live with on a daily basis, but being challenged, going through difficult things, surviving them, I think that’s what gives character to your life.”

The film is directed by filmmaker and life coach Polly Steele, who also directed David Furnish and Sir Elton John’s 1997 documentary Tantrums and Tiaras.

“I’m not a mountaineer and I’m not a rugby fan. When I was asked to do this project, I asked myself what I was doing here,” she says. “But they said, ‘No, this is a story about mental health, and we need someone who understands that.’”

In the film, Jackson speaks openly about how the accident, which happened while he was diving into a shallow pool in 2017, left him with problems with his bowel, bladder and sexual functions. He now suffers from Brown-Sequard syndrome, a neurological condition that causes weakness or paralysis on one side of the body and loss of feeling on the other. He walks with a limp.

“But what affects me most on a daily basis are problems with my bladder, intestinal transit, sexuality and fertility,” he explains.

“If you get a group of disabled people together, especially those with spinal cord injuries, they’re not going to talk about how they get around. They’re all going to talk about pee, poop and sex, because that’s really what affects them on a daily basis.

He continues: “I have to wear a catheter bag at all times when I’m out and about. I’ve wet myself more times than I can remember, but that’s part of life with a spinal cord injury.

“I appreciate how fortunate I was to recover, even though I still live as an incomplete quadriplegic with a disability. But talking about it was really important to me in the film, because a lot of these topics aren’t talked about enough. I just want to normalize these things more.”

Jackson adds that one of his other big motivations is to reframe the conversation around masculinity, as well as the mindsets of young people suffering from anxiety.

“I always had worries, anxieties and vulnerabilities, but from the outside you would have thought Ed was a tough rugby player, he never worried about anything. But no, Ed was a tough rugby player who never talked about what worried him,” he recalls.

“Now I talk about the things that worry me and that’s the brave thing to do. It’s not less masculine to say that I’m struggling or suffering, I think it’s the opposite. It would be less masculine not to talk about it.

“That’s the perspective shift I want to bring to young people and young men who are struggling. Everybody struggles, everybody has fears, everybody has anxieties and it shouldn’t be tied to your masculinity.”

Photos, television footage and phone video show Ed Jackson playing rugby before his accident with his then-girlfriend Lois, and then in hospital immediately afterwards.

After being told a week after his accident that he would likely never walk again because of his injuries, 36 hours later he jerked his toe.

“I was as surprised as everyone else,” he said. “Even though I was trying to be.”

At the time of his medical diagnosis, he said he was still in spinal shock.

“The toe movement showed that there was a connection beyond my level of injury, and I’m very fortunate because if I had had a complete spinal cord injury, no matter how hard I tried, I wouldn’t have been able to recover further,” he explains.

“People with more severe disabilities than me live extraordinary, meaningful lives, so that doesn’t mean life is over. At the time, I was trying to move because I felt like I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life wondering, ‘What if I had tried?’”

This mindset he discovered during his healing process is something he has continued to use in the charitable foundation he created with his wife, providing outdoor adventures to those who have suffered physical injuries and trauma.

Director Steele says she found the couple “inspiring and incredibly positive.”

“You can’t argue with them. You meet them and you think, ‘There must be some darkness here.’ And it’s not that they don’t recognize that there is a dark side, it’s just that they don’t dwell on it. And if I’ve learned anything, it’s that you have to be selective about where you put your thoughts.”

His condition could now leave him with a shorter life expectancy, which Jackson acknowledges, but adds: “I really don’t think about it much.

“I know that my life expectancy may be shorter or that aging will be more difficult for me. We deteriorate much more quickly,” he continues.

“I know it’s going to happen and the quality of life is going to change. I’m very conscious of living my life as long as I can, as long as I have a good quality of life. But at the same time, I know as well as anyone how quickly medicine evolves and how things change. I don’t want to question that. I just try to take each day as it comes.”

Jackson’s next project will be like one of the team presenting Channel 4’s extensive coverage of the Paralympic Games from Paris.

After that, he hopes to climb Mount Kenya in 2025, saying there is a connection for him between the physical climbing of mountains and his own state of mind.

“A lot of times when you’re on the side of a mountain and it’s minus 20 degrees and everything hurts and you’re really tired, you’re like, ‘What am I doing? Why am I doing this again? Why am I keeping doing this to myself?'” he says.

“But after you finish, you always end up in a place where you can only go by making an effort, and that changed me emotionally. But without spoiling the movie too much, it’s great that the journey didn’t always go as planned.

He concludes: “It’s not about standing on top and saying, ‘Wow, look at us.’ We were celebrating so much more than that: the power of being outdoors, mother nature, respect, survival and how important it can be in your life.”

The Mountain Within Me is released in UK cinemas on Friday 23 August.