If you told Andrew Regan four years ago that it would take him more than 18 months of training to be able to walk the length of a rugby field , the man who played club union for a decade would have laughed. But that was before a tackle gone wrong broke his neck, paralysing him instantly.

Now 39 and living with quadriplegia , Regan spent more than 10 months in hospital recovering from that fateful game. The week he was discharged, he stood up for the first time. Then, it was on.

Regan spent a year learning how to stand and bend his knees with a frame, and then he tried assisted walking with parallel bars. It was slow-going – Regan had to overcome “debilitating ankle spasms”, a neurological response to his injury – but eventually, he walked three metres with assistance.

There was no

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