How paralysed scuba expert is aiming for new diving record
A SCUBA diver will attempt to break a record after two collisions in four years left him first paralysed and then with a serious shoulder injury.
Dan Metcalfe was left with no movement or feeling below his waist after a motorbike crash in 2014.
Four years later, he was 14 miles from the end of a 600-mile handcycle ride across the country when he was hit by a car, leaving him with a serious shoulder injury.
Despite the injuries, he has become an accomplished scuba diver and a qualified instructor.
In September, he will be at Stoney Cove, in Stoney Stanton, attempting to set a new record for swimming 5km underwater with just his arms to propel him.
The first accident happened in June 2014, in Bourne, Lincolnshire. He came off his motorbike and was told he would never walk again.
Describing the second accident, near his hometown of Grantham in June 2018, the 34-year-old said: “A car hit a lorry, bounced off and hit me. The lorry driver rushed to help me and I told him to go and help the people in the car as I could hear screaming.
“When he came back to me to get me out of the handcycle, I said, ‘I can’t get out, I’m paralysed.’ He nearly had a fit.
“I said, ‘Calm down, I was paralysed before!’ It was actually hilarious.”
But the second accident damaged nerves in his shoulder and caused a serious inflammation. He’s still receiving treatment and has reduced muscle strength because of what happened.
His record attempt on September 28 will see him swimming non-stop, about six metres underwater, for 5km around Stoney Cove with a full scuba kit on his back and just his arms to power him.
With no current record standing, he expects to make the Guinness Book of Records without any problem, but he thinks the swim will be about six hours.
He hopes to raise £5,000 for the air ambulance which attended his 2014 crash, The Scuba Trust (a charity helping disabled people get into scuba diving) and Stoney Cove Dive Centre, helping it build new disabled changing facilities.
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