Hi.
I'm so happy to have you all here.
I love stories like this.
And yet, it's not a great story.
But it's an inspiring story.
So you were vacationing.
Tell everybody what happened.
Yeah, so in 2014, I was on holiday.
My friends [INAUDIBLE].
And they were all down by the pool,
and I was just messing around.
And then I went down and just dove into the swimming pool.
I wasn't drunk or anything, wasn't messing around,
doing anything silly.
And I just hit my head on the bottom of the pool.
And managed to get to the side, and couldn't get out.
And I realized I was paralyzed from just below my chest.
So when you dove in, it was the shallow end?
Yeah, it was the shallow end.
And you couldn't tell?
You just didn't see how shallow it was?
No.
I mean, there was no signs or anything like that.
So we couldn't really tell.
Yeah.
Wow, how old were you?
Just turned 20.
Just turned 20, wow.
And you were really athletic before that, too, right?
Yeah.
I mean, playing rugby, hockey like five, six times a week.
So yeah, I was quite athletic.
And trying to get back into sport
was something that was important to me after my accident.
That phone call must have been really tough to get.
Yeah.
6:30 in the morning, getting ready for work,
and get a phone call from a number we don't recognize.
And it's one of his mates telling us
that he's had an accident.
So second worst phone call you could probably ever want
to receive-- or not want to receive,
But yeah, very distressing.
So what was that like?
You know, 20 years old and you're athletic,
and all of a sudden you're told that you're paralyzed.
Were you depressed for a while, or what happened?
Yeah.
I'd say for the first two weeks or so,
in the hospital it was very, very hard
and the worst place I've been.
But after that, I was kind of like,
let's pick myself up and start going.
Go on with life.
Time's not going to go back.
I've just got to get on with it and see how life treats me.
Wow.
You were depressed for a whole two weeks.
That's amazing.
I mean, that's not a lot of time to feel sorry for yourself.
To pick yourself up that quickly is pretty amazing.
OK, so Tough Mudder.
Explain what Tough Mudder is to people.
It basically is just an obstacle course.
There's different stages of Tough Mudders.
It's not a race.
It's about helping one another.
If you go over it, you pull the next person over with you.
Had you done one before?
No, it was the first one.
I mean, I'd done local 10Ks just around my area back in the UK.
And I was just kind of looking on social media.
And you did it with him, right?
I did it with him.
I wasn't supposed to be doing it with him.
The Thursday before-- we did it on the Saturday--
his friend he was doing it with pulled out.
So he said, dad, I need you to do this with me.
Wow.
And so we ended up just going down there.
You know, just as a father and son going.
Not expecting anything.
Just going for a run around a field.
Well, it's more than a run around the field.
So you're training for the Paralympics now, right?
Yeah, that's my goal.
I'm skiing and hopefully power triathlon.
That's amazing.
That's incredible.
[APPLAUSE]
I mean, what a remarkable guy, huh?
Yeah, from that place he was in summer of 2014 laying in bed,
not knowing what the prognosis would be, to where he is now
he's just astounded us.
I'm so proud of him.
He's astounded everybody.
Yeah, I know.
But yeah, the effort and the work he's put in
and the way he's overcome up to where he is now
and where he can go, nothing stops him.
I'm proud of you too.
I don't even know you, but that's amazing.
And we want to help you get to the Paralympics.
Walmart is currently running a campaign celebrating
the importance of people coming together,
so they want to help you continue and inspire people
everywhere.
We're going to give you a check for $25,000.
[CHEERING]
Oh, wow.