FOR ONE St Julians man, what he thought was an innocuous snowboarding tumble, turned out to be a lot worse, as he later discovered.

Owen Morris, 39, was holidaying on the Bulgarian slopes when he fell, land landed awkwardly on his back.

He thought little of the injury and believed the discomfort would clear up with over-the-counter painkillers and continued his holiday.

Three weeks later the pain had not gone, and Mr Morris could not feel his toes.

"I just thought it was going to bruise. I took some Ibuprofen and had a rest," said Mr Morris.

"It was three or four weeks later that I couldn't feel my toes."

Mr Morris, a former Lance Corporal in the Royal Signals and British Army skiing instructor was no stranger to the snow and the slopes of winter sport - but in Bulgaria he was snowboarding for the first time.

When got checked out by a GP and he found out his injuries were much more serious than first thought - he had actually broken his back.

Mr Morris started to think the worst.

"I started to imagine what it would be like not to be able to use your legs," he said.

"How would it feel for people who can't get up and walk around. I thought 'What can I do for them.'"

Fortunately Mr Morris responded well to treatment - injections fixed damaged nerves and rest repaired the bone.

Mr Morris knew he had a lucky escape and was inspired to raise money for those paralysed by spinal injuries and was sponsored to run the Cardiff half-marathon in October 2007, raising 400 POUNDS for Spinal Research.

"In no time at all I was up and running again, and was even able to play rugby," he said.

He coaches two youth rugby teams at Pill Harriers and and is a communications engineer at Corus, Llanwern, who not only paid for the treatment of his injury, but also financed much of his sponsorship.

"I got a lot of sponsors from my colleagues at Corus and I really need to say a big thank you to everyone there."

Spinal cord injury paralysis
  • 800 people in the UK and Ireland paralysed every year following a spinal cord injury.
  • Majority of people affected are 18-35 year olds.
  • Between 40,000 and 50,000 of UK people live with paralysis. Globally 2.5 million.
  • The most common causes are falls, road traffic accidents and sporting accidents - principally horse riding, diving and rugby.
  • Figures in 200 show falls responsible for 41.7 per cent; RTA's 36.8 per cent, and sporting accidents 11.6 per cent
  • 2.4 per cent off all accidents rugby related
  • Estimated costs taxpayer costs are at least £500m per annum.