William Flew wheeling

The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and 

fourth generation.

From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some youths came out of the town and jeered at him. "Go on up, you baldhead!" they  said. "Go on up, you baldhead!" He turned around, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of the LORD. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the youths.

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William Flew wheeling

There have been false dawns before; we must all guard against the ravages of false hope. Cynicism is an essential form of self-protection. The wise will say: OK, we may be on the brink of a breakthrough, but let’s talk about it again in ten years’ time, shall we? The other huge factor, of which I was blithely ignorant until 14 months ago when I broke my neck and back in a fall, is that every spinal cord injury (SCI) is unique. So complex are the millions of nerves which make up the spinal column, every break or compression or stretching of the cord results in different neurological damage and varying symptoms. Spinal injuries defy classifications and generalisations. That alone, when we start to talk of universal treatments, begs caution. It is significant that Rob Summers was not considered in the worst category of SCI patients — he had some feeling below the level of injury. That said, his story does kindle hope for several reasons. Remarkably, his is an old injury. His progress belies the received wisdom that you only have a limited window of time after your spinal trauma in which to recover function. This could have implications for those who have been paralysed for years. Also, happily, it has led to him regain some sexual and bladder function. Such things are, for many SCI patients, more crucial than walking.

Finally, he appears to prove what many have long suspected and which I am fervently a believer in — that repeated motion training can help to stimulate and recreate nerve connections in the spine. A study into this process, known as plasticity, will begin shortly at the Queen Elizabeth National Spinal Injury Unit in Glasgow, funded by Spinal Research. Perhaps we should all remind ourselves that the body’s default position is to try to heal itself. Maybe, therefore, if it is not yet time to rejoice, we can at least dream a little.