Fergus Farrell aims raise €1 million for Spinal Injuries Ireland
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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?
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.
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.
Yeah, I can see your logic there. So going back to, you start to regain the movement and you start to heal, then you have to go through the rehab and all you wanted to do was get home. I'm going to get home now, that's going to be my focus. But then when you got home, things didn't work out great there either.
Yeah. And look, it was my own fault. You know, one thing I thought, everybody worried about me up in Dublin because I was the person with the injury. But who was looking after my kids and my ex-wife down in Galway?
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:01–0:39
2
What inspired Fergus Farrell to walk across the United States?
0:39–1:54
3
What caused Fergus's spinal cord injury?
1:54–4:15
4
What challenges did Fergus face after his injury?
4:15–7:21
5
How did visualization play a role in Fergus's recovery?
7:21–16:52
6
What was Fergus's experience with mental health after his injury?
16:52–18:12