An 82-year-old cyclist from Wales has defied a devastating medical prognosis, learning to walk again after a serious accident left him with a broken neck and a compressed spinal cord.
The Life-Changing Accident
In June 2021, Harold Price, a retired engineer from Griffithstown in Wales, was enjoying a motorcycle ride with a friend. An avid lover of two wheels, he typically cycled around 95 miles a week on his road bike. The outing took a tragic turn when his friend pulled out in front of him on a narrow road. "I had nowhere to go," Price recalls. The impact caused his head to snap back violently, and he lost consciousness.
The accident resulted in a broken fifth vertebra in his neck, which compressed his spinal cord. The injury was so severe that medical professionals delivered a grim verdict: he would never walk again. "That was a bit of a downer, obviously," Price states with characteristic understatement. Despite the prognosis, a fierce determination ignited within him to prove the doctors wrong.
The Long Road to Recovery
Price spent months in hospital, where the disconnect between his mind and body became painfully clear. "My mind told me I could get up and walk out. But when I tried, I collapsed," he explains. Back at home, a friend designed a makeshift wheeled lifting frame to help him stand, but progress was fraught with frequent falls.
A turning point came in 2022 during home adaptation work, when an engineer mentioned the Morrello Clinic, a physiotherapy centre in Newport. There, Price met physiotherapist Sam Miggins. After a thorough assessment, she looked at him and made a simple, powerful promise: "I'll get you to walk." For Price, after months of hearing the opposite, this was a transformative moment.
Proving the Prognosis Wrong
Price began an intensive rehabilitation programme, attending the clinic twice a week. His regimen included training on an active-passive exercise bike, resistance work, stretching to improve hip and trunk mobility, and supported walking exercises. Progress was agonisingly slow and tested his resolve. "I go to bed at night and sometimes I think I don't want to wake up. Then in the morning I think, oh well, I'll walk again," he shares, highlighting the mental battle alongside the physical one.
After six months of relentless effort, he built enough strength to use an upright walker. The first time was "marvellous", despite the pain. Today, he can walk 400 metres up and down the road outside the clinic with a Zimmer frame, joking with other patients that he's "walking to the pub". At home, he manages short distances with his wife using a walking frame, and they no longer require care workers for dressing or getting into bed.
His physical improvements are marked. Severe leg spasms that once shot his legs up at right angles have now stopped. At the clinic, he has progressed to walking with a quad stick and just one person for support. During a yearly hospital review, a doctor acknowledged his incredible achievement: "Well, Mr Price, you proved us wrong." When Price credited his physiotherapist Sam, the doctor corrected him, "It's not down to Sam, it's down to you."
Harold Price's story is a powerful testament to human resilience, specialised physiotherapy, and the unwavering will to reclaim one's life after a catastrophic spinal cord injury.
