About Me and Why I Am Driving Around the Globe
My Name is David.
In December 2007, a heavy lifting accident at work changed my life. At the time, I had no idea what I’d done. It wasn’t until three weeks later, when I suddenly collapsed, that the real damage began to reveal itself. I had just turned 46.
Scans showed I had suffered an incomplete spinal cord injury from C4 to T2. C4/C5 and C5/C6 were completely destroyed. A surgeon replaced both sections with titanium implants — and then those implants failed catastrophically.
A neurologist later explained that four of the five nerves in my left brachial plexus had been damaged. Only the radial nerve survived. Two independent medical experts then told me, very calmly, that I was now 60% disabled for life and that it was unlikely I would ever return to work — certainly not to the kind of work I had done before.
I am not someone who just “accepts” things. I built a small team of five people around me to fight for my recovery. Over five long years, we clawed back as much function as we could. Today, I can live independently and I can walk — slowly, carefully, and not very far. Anything over about 20 metres, and I need my wheelchair.
Then came 2020 and lockdown. Like many of us, I spent too much time on YouTube. But in that time, I discovered something powerful: spinal injury warriors from all over the world — young, old, newly injured, long-term fighters. Watching them lit a spark. I realised that my real mission wasn’t just to make my life better; I’m getting older. My heart was pulled towards children and young people with spinal injuries, who still have their entire lives ahead of them.
When you say the word cancer, people reach for their wallets. When you say spinal cord injury, people say, “I’m so sorry,” and then… nothing. There’s a quiet, harmful belief that “nothing can be done.”
But just like cancer, spinal cord injury needs serious funding if we’re going to find ways to repair damaged nerves and restore lives.
So in 2021, I came up with what many would call a crazy idea: to drive around the globe to raise awareness and money for spinal cord research. First, I had to answer a simple question — is it even possible for me to do something like this solo? I want to prove that being disabled and having a spinal cord injury does not define me and does not stop me from chasing a dream, no matter how impossible or unreasonable it may sound.
That’s the journey I’m on.
Before the Accident
Me Now with my Granddaughter