Slight errors in the printed article - I am not World Champion
Paul Thomas taking disability in his painful stride on way to new sporting heights
Tom Coghlan Defence Correspondent
Riding high: since starting to receive help from the SIA, Thomas’s life has been transformed to the extent that he has represented Britain in the paratriathlon
Picture by Andrew Hasson for The Times
Paul Thomas, 49, is a world champion triathlete, horseman, would-be Olympic table tennis champion, equine science teacher and paraplegic.
His level of disability is not immediately obvious as he rides a perfectly groomed thoroughbred mare round the paddock at Plumpton Agricultural College near the Sussex Downs, where he is a teacher.
But out of the saddle he walks slowly with a robotic stiffness and the help of two poles. A slight flicker behind the eyes at every step gives some clue to the pain that he suffers as he does so. The only thing that trumps the pain, he says, is the challenge and camaraderie of competing against fellow disabled athletes.
“They have conquered so much in their lives; every one of them is an inspiration for me,” Thomas said. “We turn up, compete, have a few drinks afterwards. It is like we are all normal.” After a pause, he added: “We are normal.”
Thomas’s bloody-minded determination to live a normal life has led him to work with the Spinal Injuries Association (SIA), one of the charities The Times is supporting this Christmas. He has helped to set up its Peer Support Programme, which seeks out, supports and tries to inspire those recently disabled with debilitating spinal injuries. Such support was starkly absent from his experience of injury.
“If Peer Support had been in place with the NHS when I was injured, I would have benefited much quicker,” he said. “Some people may not know what can be done for them, the mutual support, the encouragement.”
In 2000 Thomas’s life was utterly transformed by a sneeze. It caused a congenitally weak disc in his lower back to slip, pressing it against the spinal column and severely damaging or severing the nerves leading to his lower body. Ironically, for a man who spent 12 years as a soldier in the Household Cavalry, his condition, cauda equina syndrome, translates as horse tail syndrome.
Thomas was left in agony as the nerve endings in his spine sent a kaleidoscope of pain messages to his brain. His limbs no longer worked and he spent years struggling to learn some measure of control over them with the few remaining nerve endings.
The medical care he received was far from comprehensive, although he does not blame the NHS staff. “I couldn’t fault them for the support in the treatment phase, but with the pressures on the NHS, as soon as you can walk, they send you home,” he said.
In the seven years that followed his accident he lived as a virtual prisoner in his home, sunk in depression and doing little but watch television. Searching the internet, he found the SIA. “I wish I’d spoken to them seven years earlier, because they have supported me,” he said.
Thomas learnt that some disabled people, even with conditions as severe as his, had managed to fight back against the limitations in their lives. “I was looking for something to beat my disability,” he said. He found triathlon.
In June 2008 he competed in the first British Paratriathlon in Sheffield. He managed to cover the 750-metre swim, 20-kilometre cycle and five-kilometre run in an agonising two hours and 12 minutes. But the elation that the achievement gave him has become the chief pleasure in his life.
Sport and training now dominate Thomas’s daily existence and he runs a website offering advice and encouragement to other sufferers. He takes huge pride in having represented Great Britain in triathlon, becoming world champion this year. “We compete against our disability first and against each other and for our country second,” he said.
Paratriathlon will not be an Olympic sport at London 2012, but is likely to get Olympic status for 2016. In the meantime, Thomas is working hard on table tennis as a potential alternative. He is secretary of the Phoenix Athletics Club in Brighton and a local leisure centre gives him free access for training.
“To wear the flag of Great Britain on your chest is one of the best feelings in the world,” he said. “In a way something very negative has become positive. If it wasn’t for being disabled, that never would have happened.
“I have come to see my disability as a positive. My two children are the best thing in the world, being disabled is the second best. Life is for living and bad things can happen. You must never say you can’t do that and you can’t just wait to die.”
When a cross-country event tried to ban him from competing on health and safety grounds, arguing that his running sticks represented a danger to others, he forced it to back down for breaking disability discrimination laws.
His next goal is to cycle up Ditchling Beacon, a climb that defeats many an able-bodied cyclist at the end of the London to Brighton race. He intends to make the summit before the spring.
• Donations to the Spinal Injuries Association made by Times readers during the Appeal will be matched by Pannone, the specialist serious injury lawyers, City of London’s City Bridge Trust, which funds projects helping the people of London, and Active Assistance, the live-in care specialist.