Life and sport with a spinal cord injury
My name is Gary Cox, I am 31 years old and I live in England. I played sports growing up such as football and karate. After school I trained as a plasterer, I worked with my uncle and friends on different jobs. One morning, aged 19, while driving to work I had a car accident. I broke my neck damaging my spinal cord at c6/7 leaving me paralysed from the chest down with impairments in my arms and hands.
I spent 6 months at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, Aylesbury where I learnt how to re-live my life in a wheelchair. This was difficult. During my rehabilitation I was able to try lots of different wheelchair sports which helped me with my recovery as I was able to meet people like myself and continue my love of sport. Since my accident I have played wheelchair rugby, wheelchair table tennis and wheelchair tennis. I have recently also been signed to a disability modeling agency (Zebedee Management). I am now married and have a son. It is important to me to show him that anything is possible if you work hard and believe in yourself.
