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My life changed irrevocably four-and-a-half years ago when my spine failed and collapsed. I spent two years on the floor, in excruciating, debilitating and unrelenting pain. I can only describe the pain as being submerged into a vat of scalding acid that has an electric current running through it. And you can never get out, ever.

My fiancee's brother-in-law was recently paralysed in an accident and it really brought home the fact that thousands of young people live with spinal injuries. It's an issue I wish had more coverage.

I've had injuries in my life from things beyond my control: runaway horses, helicopters that decide to crash on mountaintops, boating accidents - things that were out of my hands.

Injuries are not only a physical question, which is the most important thing, of course, but also a question of your mind. If you're thinking: 'I'm not going to make it', 'I can't cope', 'it hurts', 'it's never going to get better', then it won't.

You only worry about your head or spinal column. Everything else, some way or another, will repair in time.

My injuries are more due to attrition than accidents. I have a couple of herniated discs in my neck, and that more than anything else - I had a flare-up last December, and I had actually made the decision to retire before that, but that just cemented the choice. I was flat on my back.

The downside isn't really injury, fear of injury or the process of fighting back from injury. The downside, the very worst thing in the world, is surgery.

My spine healed incorrectly. There were long periods when I'd be perfectly all right, and then there were many other times when I wasn't, when my back would give out and throw me down to the floor amid waves of nauseating pain.

I've had so many injuries in my life that it's ridiculous.