‘Never stop dreaming. Anything is possible’
10 years ago Jim Jones, 55 from Port Talbot, couldn’t walk. Now he’s celebrating hitting an astonishing 3000 miles in 2020.
IWAS ATTACKED BY a patient while working as a psychiatric nurse, and by 2010 I’d lost the ability to walk – and almost the will to live. Before, I’d been very fit and active – a rugby player who cycled and swam regularly. Now I’d never be able to work again. I was retired due to incapacity, soon lost my home and found myself living off a very small pension, confined to a mobility scooter. Depression set in and for two years I turned to drink.
Treatments ground to a halt, friends disappeared, work colleagues simply got on with their lives and I found myself just existing. Not caring if
I ever woke again. But then with a new doctor overseeing my case I was given a long course of intensive physiotherapy and slowly things started to improve. It was still incredibly difficult, the pain at times unbearable, but I started to believe life actually was worth living. In 2013 I took my first steps unaided but late in 2016 I had another accident and caused further damage to my spine, and had more problems in 2019.
Then, with my mental health deteriorating, my partner gave me a copy of Country Walking after being drawn in by the #walk1000miles logo on the cover. She’s very clever is Catie, and she knew that by giving me something to aim for I’d do my best to rise to the challenge, or try to at least. So, on the 1st January this year I got out of bed and started walking. I found the group on Facebook and for the first time in over 20 years started to feel that I was
#walk1000miles changed my life. Saved it.
part of something. I was amazed. So many wonderful people. So many people who had turned to walking as a way of improving both their mental and physical health. It showed me I am not alone.
I discovered things I’d almost forgotten about… the smell of clean air on a mountainside, the sound of a river in full spate or that incredible feeling of pulling your walking boots on and knowing soon everything will be okay again. I began to lose weight – six stone in all – and with that moving became easier. I was smitten. And I actually walked up Pen y Fan! I’d always dreamt of doing it, though I felt it was an impossible idea.
I walked loop after loop of my local park until restrictions were lifted in this part of Wales. Now I still walk every day – still with a crutch but my heart lifts each time. #walk1000miles changed my life. Saved it. And for that I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I’m so glad I never gave up.”