Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The Clare Byrne Show on Newstalk. With Aviva Insurance. Tara, thank you very much. But my next guest is aiming to be the first person with a spinal cord injury to walk across the United States. Now that's happening in August and it's all in the name of raising money for Spinal Injuries Ireland.
Former Connacht rugby player Fergus Farrell has had quite the journey to get to this point and he joins me now. Fergus, you're very welcome. Good to see you.
Thank you.
I don't know where to start with this story, but I think we might go to what caused the injury in the first place because it was such a mundane thing really, wasn't it?
Chapter 2: What inspired Fergus Farrell to walk across the United States?
Yeah, it really was. It was just a simple act of lifting a metal bench. It was no more than 60 or 80 kgs. And yeah, I ruptured my T9, T10 and the T10 went through my spinal cord at several by 90%. And as I said, it was a life changing instant in a split second. Look it, I've come out at the good side of it.
Well, you walked in here today.
Yeah, and that's a privilege and something that people take for granted every day. Every step they take, they take it for granted.
Were you told that you wouldn't walk again? What were you facing?
So a couple of days after having the operation done, the surgeon sat down beside me and said, look, at 72 hours, if you get movement, you have a 5% chance of regaining some sort of strength. 5%? Yeah, they didn't say walking. And if 72 hours pass by and you have nothing, your stats have gone to 0%.
So obviously I fought for those 72 hours and I guess I did walk in here, but I didn't get any movement after 72 hours. It was 21 days later and I always remember that moment, half two at night, I moved that big right toe. Now I'm moved by a fraction, but I said from there on out, I had something to latch onto.
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Chapter 3: What caused Fergus's spinal cord injury?
And you know yourself, when you have a progress, you can stay motivated and you can stay fighting. And that's what I did.
Mm-hmm.
You were doing that visualisation of switching a light on, weren't you, when you were there in the bed?
Yeah, yeah, I was. Because, look, all I had is I was completely paralysed. I'd lost my centre of gravity. I'd lost my bowels, my bladder. And I was being looked after by a team of amazing people. But all I could use was my head at the time, you know. I didn't have any physical... I had my arms. but I couldn't move in the bed. So I had to use the tools I had in my box.
And one of those tools was visualization, something that I used all my life, but I didn't realize how powerful it was. And because I was lying in the bed, I could do nothing else but visualize. So every waking moment I had, which was a lot of waking moments because the pain was horrific and the pain is still horrific to this day.
But I kept visualizing, visualizing, visualizing and trying to make that connection, trying to repair that broken spinal cord with, I won't go into how I went into doing it, but Like, ultimately, 21 days later, it moved. And I do put it down to that process of visualisation and working hard and not giving up.
You're still in pain, are you?
Yeah, three, four, seven. I take a lot of medication to keep myself... to, I suppose, hide the pain, but it's constantly there. It doesn't leave me. It's like severe pins and needles throughout my whole body. Sorry, throughout my whole lower body. So when you, at night it's worse because once I take the pressure off my feet, the pain increases.
But look, that's not something I worry about because I can't do anything about it, number one. And number two is if I concentrate on that, it'll lead me down the wrong path.
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Chapter 4: What challenges did Fergus face after his injury?
So my mind came very empty and I started filling up with so many negative thoughts. Plus the medication was absolutely turning me into somebody I had no clue who I was. But I was living it. Yeah, even to this day, I look back and I go, man, I was such a different character. But again, I needed that medication to do what I did.
If I didn't have that medication, I don't know whether I would have got back on my feet or would have been able to keep fighting. So it was a necessary evil.
Yeah. And your marriage ended at that time, didn't it?
It did, yeah, unfortunately. And down to myself, you know, because at the end of the day, my wife is a good person and she is still a good person. She's a great mother. So it is what happened. I can't change that, unfortunately.
So then when did you start taking on these sort of fitness type challenges? Like what was that? Was that trying to find something else to aim for?
So I ended up not wanting to be here. Seven weeks after walking out the doors of the NRH, after being told, you know, it's not possible. So people on the outside seeing this person who was beaten, impossible. But behind it all, I was wearing that mask and I was struggling behind it. The business was failing. My marriage was failing.
My poor kids, because I've been away from them so long, you know, hadn't a really great connection with them, especially my six-month-old son.
How long had you been away for?
From October, about seven months. Yeah, seven months. But then obviously I got home and I was only home for a short period of time and unfortunately I had to move out of the house. So there's more than just the seven months. And ultimately, I didn't want to be here for a period of time. And thankfully a relationship saved me in that moment.
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Chapter 5: How did visualization play a role in Fergus's recovery?
But when I got out, I didn't. And that's why I ended up in that ward. So when I discovered this, I said, when am I going to be the happiest? What's going to make me happy? And I went back to a part of my life when I was like maybe 17 to 21, 22. I was so happy. Why was I so happy?
it wasn't just around the sport it was just I had time for people and I had time to develop relationships and have fun and enjoy life I said that's where I need to replicate again that's where I need to be I don't want to be back to the ratty Fergus that I was when I was building a business because I didn't have time for people so I made a plan I did that and one of the plans was to create a challenge and that challenge was to walk across the country one year after my accident 206 kilometres and at that stage I could only walk about 300 metres so I set a mammoth challenge laughing
It's crazy, really. I'd say you had plenty of people around you who said, will you stop?
Yeah, well, I told the NRH because I was fundraising for the NRH and they brought me up and set me down in this room and I'll never forget it. The consultant was there, Eimear, and physio and occupational therapy and they're all sitting around and they're saying, why are you doing this?
And I said, well, I want to raise money for the NRH and I need to do it for myself as well to help my progress because I was still only stumbling on my feet. It wasn't like I was walking like I walked in here today.
Yeah.
And yeah, they were like going, don't do it.
I bet they were.
Every time they were saying don't do it, I was going, I'm doing it. You know, so even by the end of the meeting, they were like going, OK, best of luck.
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Chapter 6: What was Fergus's experience with mental health after his injury?
So it's ferguswalks.ie if you want to help Fergus out. It's happening in August. How are you training, Fergus?
What do you have to do? So it's time and feet. So yesterday I did 32 kilometres. Tomorrow I'll be probably doing about 40 kilometres. So ultimately what I'm building up to before I go is to do 10 60 kilometre days in a row. Because ultimately you can't train for 75 days. You know what I mean? You can only prepare a certain amount. So it's time and feet.
The psychological side of things is something that I've really been... We did our familiarisation trip two weeks ago to see the route, to visualise it. Because again, I do a lot of things through visualisation. And it's really opened up, you know, what I need to physically and mentally prepare for. And yeah, it's a...
more than a few jelly babies needed to get you across the line Fergus thanks so much for coming in and I wish you the very best we'll keep in touch with you in August we'd love to chat to you as you go through the route we might keep you going for a kilometre or two that'd be great with a chat every bit appreciated Fergus Farrell there and you can have a look at Fergus's website ferguswalks.ie back after this
The Clare Byrne Show. With Aviva Insurance. Weekday mornings at 9 on Newstalk. Conversation that counts.
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