Triathlon Competitor Matthew Hawksley Has a Cat’s 9 Lives
Matthew Hawksley, a 25-year-old welding engineer who is preparing to take part in the London Triathlon, thinks he isn't the luckiest guy on earth but is nevertheless thankful he has a cat's nine lives.
Planning to run, swim and cycle in the Virgin Active London Triathlon on July 27, all at just 25 years old, Mr Hawksley has been through a lot of physical mishaps, from surviving a broken neck, heart attacks, MRSA, pneumonia and cancer.
It was in June 2011 when Mr Hawksley, thinking the waters in his diving spree was deep, jumped off a sea wall. It was too late for him to realize it was only 15 feet deep. The moment of impact with the sharp rocks underneath should have immediately killed him, but he was lucky to be alive to have sustained only a shattered spine.
However, the shattered fifth vertebrae in his spine brought on a heart attack when watter filled his lungs. Responding medics resuscitated him four times all in a span of 30 minutes before they arrived in a hospital in Co. Sligo, Ireland.
Eventually waking up from a five-week coma, Mr Hawksley contracted life-threatening illnesses including pneumonia while still in hospital recovering. Doctors doubted he could ever walk or talk again.
"My family was told that it was unlikely I would ever speak again and I probably would spend my life in a wheelchair controlled by my chin."
But Mr Hawksley fought back and was walking again within five months.
Just when things were already getting rosier again, Mr Hawksley got hit by the MRSA superbug and pneumonia.
And just months after getting discharged from the hospital, on April 2012, he was diagnosed with testicular cancer. Ultimately, he had his right testicle removed and has since been given the all go clear signal.
Now, two years since he woke from coma, Mr Hawksley wants to raise funds for the Macmillan Cancer Support and The Back-Up Trust, an organization which helps people with spinal cord injuries.
"I feel like the unluckiest man I know - but in lots of ways, I suppose, I'm the luckiest man in Britain," he said.
"You can't let yourself down. You have to pick yourself up and work with what you've got."