If you have a dream...never give up!: Mark Colbourne at TEDxKingsCollegeLondon

thank you very much what I would like to do is just to give you an insight into my life over the last few years and maybe you can just get an appreciation of why I'm still here okay my story of my presentation is entitled when you have a dream never give up because you never know what tomorrow is going to bring and for me now as a disabled person I look back on my life and I'm very appreciative of the life that I've had I'd like to take you back to 2009 when as you can see this was my Daniel Craig impression but life was great for me full-time job you know nice company car racing triathlon regularly you know canoeing but my passion was paragliding and when you get that Peter Pan moment as a paragliding pilot that is in my eyes there is nothing like it unfortunately as you can see this is me here unfortunately two hours after this photograph was taken I was flying just among this area here when my life changed in a matter of seconds and what actually happened I flew into what we call a crosswind which is almost like black ice in the air that you can't see it you can't feel it you can't touch it but it's there and what happens when you actually fly into a crosswind is that your canopy actually collapses now for me flying at 40 feet above the ground as you can imagine was a very very scary moment indeed now when I actually hit the floor after my canopy collapsed I didn't realize the actual severity of my injury but to add insult to injury when I actually hit the floor from about 40 feet which is quite traumatic in itself the canopy actually reinflates and dragged me for almost 80 meters so this experience of being in a washing machine and just being tumbling and tumbling and being smashed to the floor was just an horrific experience for me it really was when I actually finally stopped tumbling and I'm laying on the floor looking up at the Sun and the blue sky and thinking to myself wow that was really really close I'm just so lucky that I'm still alive and then I tried to sit up and I thought why can't I sit up why can't I move my legs because you're trained as a paragliding pilot to unclip your harness and pull in the canopy when you crash but this feeling of being velcroed to the floor was so so scary and they say that life begins at 40 and it really did for me so this feeling of laying on the floor while the paragliding pilots came down to my rescue was such a life-changing experience for me so one of the paragliding pilots radioed for the whales their ambulance and as you can see from this photograph here they treated me immediately not knowing the severity of my injury so after maybe 40 minutes I've treated me and stabilizing me onto this spinal board very very carefully because I kept saying to the paramedic I can't feel my legs it's okay you're in good hands so immediately they airlifted me off to hospital and within maybe 15 maybe 20 minutes I'm actually being treated by possibly the best health care service in the world and I kept saying to the consultant can you just tell me what I've done because I can't feel my legs and I cannot sit up and the consultant said to me look we need to get you into the MRI we need to get you to have an x-ray so we know exactly what you've done now when somebody tells you that you've broken your back after having 20 years of enjoying sport your whole life just washes before your eyes and I genuinely thought that at that point my life was completely over however it was actually the start of a brand new life for me it really was when I was actually admitted into hospital to have a spinal operation to have my vertebrae fused with special pins the first day I woke up after my operation and I'm staring up at the ceiling and count in the ceiling tiles and I say to people can you lie in bed for maybe maybe a few days without moving because it's so frustrating but for me having the experience of just lying there not being able to move and and go for a shower and go for food was very very frustrating but to actually lie there for 94 days 3 months completely paralyzed was very very frustrating indeed however I never gave up because I know in my heart one day I'm going to pass away whether I'm disabled or not so for me it was just a new challenge in life because we all grow up from a very young age facing challenges every single day of our life and luckily and I mean this even though I've suffered lower leg paralysis both my feet don't work no hamstrings no glutes firing the one group of muscles that did work thankfully in my legs were my quads because they weren't affected through the nerve damage now luckily because of my quads work and that meant that after five six months in hospital I can actually sit on an exercise bike and turn the pedals I couldn't walk even on walking aids I was really struggling but when I left hospital after nearly six months I focused on what I could do and didn't worry about what I couldn't do because that wasn't going to change my disability was always going to be what it was going to be so I started cycling with an Academy which actually taught disabled people to have a life so when I actually stepped on to the bike I didn't feel disabled it was just a euphoric feeling it really was so after another six months of just training and training and training the light bulb went off in my head we were now two years away from the biggest sporting event on the planet the London Paralympics but at that point it was just a thought genuinely just a thought my conscience was physiotherapy rehabilitation maybe a new life albeit with a disability but that was my thought that was my feeling to have a life now I think for me going through life as a very very active individual I'm growing up with this wonderful man who was known as mr. nice guy this is my dad this was me growing up with a great family my dad always said to me you know if you have a dream never give up son but if you want your life to change you have to change and one of my friends spoke to me on a very special charity bike ride and he said to me are you training for the London Paralympics I said no no no no he said I think you should I said why do you say that then Colin he said because you've got so much power so much endurance even as a disabled athlete I think you could do really well and when somebody says to you I think you can do really well that's another challenge in itself isn't it so the lightbulb moment started 24 months exactly before the London power Olympics I took myself off to Crete for six months training when we had a really bad winter in 2011 and I came back after completing three and a half thousand miles in you know the wonderful Mediterranean region of Crete to then come back and compete in a an international Time Trial to find that I was 40 seconds off the world-record I'd lost two stone in weight to make myself competitive in the cycling area so my coach at the time spoke to British Cycling and he said is there any chance of this young gentleman who's broken his back maybe having you know having the chance to cycle for Great Britain and the British para cycling team said okay we'll take marc away to five races just to try them out because we one year now from the London Paralympics I came back with five medals they immediately shipped me up to Manchester because they British Cycling we're now thinking we've actually got a potential medal you know a medal hope you at home games Wow so I was now part of the biggest sporting organization in the world training for the biggest sporting event on the planet and it's in my back yard Wow so the training started the racing started and that was my road to the London 2012 Paralympics which is a fantastic opportunity for me however my dad rang me one day and said look son I need to speak to you I said yes of course so I went home to be told that my dad had stomach cancer so from this euphoric feeling to being disappointed was horrible a horrible experience for me a month later I raced in the road World Championships and won a silver medal three months later I was invited to race in the world Track Championships to only be told one week before I left that my dad may not be there when I come home he was given two weeks to live my dad said go to Los Angeles and and win that gold for me and I did unfortunately when I came back my dad had passed away horrible experience dealing with a gold medal to then dealing with my dad's funeral but as we all know life goes on and it was not long to go now six months before the London Paralympics training and racing as hard as I physically could not to give up I won two silver medals in two World Cups and then was invited to the official launch to represent Paralympics GB at the London Paralympics Wow this dream was now becoming a reality all the hard work was done it was now time to perform for mr. nice guy so my first race the sprint four laps of the velodrome as fast as you can silver medal the very first medal won at the London Paralympics and amazing achievement two years hard work the 10 mile time trial another silver medal but not the ones that I came for because I wanted that medal for my dad what I'd like to show you now is my race my final race from the London Paralympics marks away pushing this first pull on the gear no problems whatsoever getting away for this time 12 laps of the track and as we watch the far the record the bronze has just been worn while we were talking by Argentina who has got the bronze now let's see who gets the goal here and what's the lights that gives you the guidance here as we start Tobin is down by one point wall on the start now we know the mark as a rather slow start let's cut part of Estella started hopefully with making sure that the entities not going to find gold for the tax you know he cut quicks he's good at the grind chasing but anything so without the moment he's hold the great danger of having such a wonderful audience if you'd react to the audience rather than write to your sheduled all side of the track and you sell out before the last kilometer now this is a good sign in my opinion that markers got off a little bit side and then call for guys coach to Dragonland record Shadia using toothpick ever love it still it's the Chinese writer reaching the opposite side of the track prayers it's 1.18 won the deficit now as we go through the first kilometer my first game inside one 17.6 wrong one I'm not a particularly fast opening killer AJ Lee yong-soo Cobin is coming back as always this incredible clown Scott sir before I do he's now inside the second he's down in the office the steamroller is in progress as you know marks a good time try this on the road you know what to do as he closes in now on opposite sides of the tractor and now has reversed it by 2/10 of a second the stadium roof is just on up 20 feet as he now goes down the back straight and he's now he's not to get out to nearly a second while I'm sitting on him by the greater city noise shouldn't tile for the Chinese right very very fast boehmem seven much before you actually have the Chinese writer in his sights let's get overconfident now Neal as he comes round into the 2 kilometer point here this is at the - 30 cents now and the curtain frozen always love you 35 for the second kilonewton three seconds I take it all back Neal he's got the rider in his sights yeah I know Martin to do I know he can hold me pull up on him very Bisutti position here the first gold medal for the Welshman for the surprise yes to women the kilo but he knows he's the one you want Tobin who built his back that was in May 2000 all this 2012 is come Paralympic gold medalist luckily fly my tease might not even reach it yet it will just about he won't catch him in three kilometres the Bella's gone for the last time yeah the coach has given up on telling watch reading lose on he's a plugin at the Chinese rider go and catch him he's closing in rapidly and he might slipstream as he comes up this banking into the finishing state he's a hundred for the finish the record is just gone by Oh and a new world record as well amazing performances today mark tobin fantastic creative amazing Thiel is finally finally achieve my dream but as we all know when you win a Paralympic gold medal and you have this euphoric feeling they give you something else that was the dream I had albeit two years ago and my feeling is that winners never quit and quitters never win another feeling that you get is when you get your own Paralympic gold medal stamp Wow and a gold post box however there's somebody missing off that picture mr. nice guy so I leave this with you the thought of me staring at the ceiling in hospital for 94 days proves that dreams do come true they really do and I think for me now being awarded the MBE which is a fantastic achievement I'll take that dream and hopefully I'll see you all in Rio thank you very much

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 245,832

Rating: 4.8809433 out of 5

Keywords: Paralympics, Lifestyle, ted x, \London 2012 Paralympics\, tedx, cycling, tedx talk, science, ted talks, culture, nurture, Entertainment, paragliding, rehabilitation, University, ted talk, English, dream, Olympics, genes, nature, TEDxKingsCollegeLondon, Education, change, challenge, Gold, medals, London 2012 Olympics, endurance, United Kingdom (Country), passion, health, TEDx, Identity, London, ted, injury, sport, genetics, tedx talks, disability, Gold Medal, Silver, Psychology

Id: DPrqsM02oYA

Length: 18min 35sec (1115 seconds)

Published: Wed May 22 2013