Photos: Amalia Osborne
At 20, Gareth Lynch was loving student life at Canterbury University. He was super-sporty, with a great group of mates, a steady girlfriend and full of plans for the future. But on September 16, 2016, the unthinkable happened.
“There was a tradition for students to do stunts as part of an election process for a university social club executive,” says Gareth, 27. “I decided I’d jump off a roof into a pool. Unfortunately, I jumped too far and the momentum carried me into the bottom of the pool.”
Face-down in the water and fully conscious, Gareth knew it was serious.
“I couldn’t feel anything from my shoulders down. All I could do was hold my breath and wait for help.”
A group of pals, along with his girlfriend Shae Lightwood-Morris, who was visiting from Auckland, jumped in to save him and Gareth was ambulanced to Christchurch Hospital and whisked into surgery.
“It was terrifying,” recalls Shae, 28. “We’d had conversations about the stunt beforehand. I wasn’t happy he was doing it, but he was so confident. I’ll always regret I didn’t do more to stop him.”
Gareth had broken his C5 and C6 vertebrae, and the prognosis wasn’t good.
“Doctors told me I’d need 24/7 care for the rest of my life,” he tells.
He stayed in intensive care for 30 days, where he contracted pneumonia and lost the ability to breathe. “I was given a tracheostomy and hooked up to a ventilator. That wasn’t fun,” says Gareth.
Luckily, he survived and one day in hospital rehab, he met Cody Everson from New Zealand’s national wheelchair rugby team the Wheel Blacks. Cody has a similar spinal cord injury and he gave Gareth a go in his rugby wheelchair.
“At the time, I was too weak to push my manual chair at a resonable pace and his rugby chair was so much faster,” he says.
Gareth decided to give wheelchair rugby a try.
“I was so slow, I could hardly do anything. But the idea of getting into training was pretty attractive, so I started pushing myself around more. Gradually I got stronger.”
Mentally, however, Gareth wasn’t okay.
“I wasn’t doing well,” he admits. “I’d be with a group of friends and instead of having fun, I’d dwell on what I’d lost.”
He told Shae he didn’t expect her to stay.
“My self-esteem was largely built up from the things I could do physically. When that was taken away, my self-esteem went with it.”
But Shae wasn’t going anywhere. “Walking away didn’t cross my mind,” she says. “I loved Gaz for himself, not his physical abilities. He wanted to get back on track as soon as possible, and I wanted to be there to help and support him. Quitting wasn’t an option.”
Finally, on February 15, 2017, Gareth went home.
“I wasn’t enjoying hospital. I wanted to get out, finish my university degree and find my way back in the world.”
Gareth’s mates rallied around, taking him everywhere and also building ramps to make their flats accessible. Gradually, things improved.
“I built strength by pushing myself in my wheelchair. Initially, I’d wait until evening and wheel down the middle of the road to my friend’s house and they’d have to drive me back because I was exhausted, but I gradually got better.”
As his physical fitness improved, so did his mental health.
“I’ve never wanted to be a burden and the more capable I am, the more independent I am,” he says.
These days, Gareth juggles being a Wheel Black with his job as a water resources engineer, and he and Shae have discovered new hobbies. “We’re serial restaurant-goers!” tells Shae. They’ve also found a way to exercise together – Shae runs, while Gareth sets the pace with a battery-assisted hand cycle attached to his wheelchair.
“I can still only use the same muscle groups, but I’m a lot stronger,” explains Gareth.
He uses a manual chair when he isn’t playing rugby. “I much prefer this to sitting in a 180kg, joystick-operated electric chair.” And he’s learned acceptance is key to happiness.
“You’re only ever in control of your thoughts, emotions and actions,” he explains. “Everything else is out of your control, so if you resist things you can’t change, you’ll always have mental conflict. Now I put my energies into positive aspects rather than negative ones. And thanks to Shae and my mates helping me, I can do all kinds of things I technically shouldn’t be able to. I’m very grateful.”
Wheel Blacks: Bodies on the Line streams on Neon.
Also read about fellow Wheel Black Maia Marshall-Amai‘s story.
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