UK man left paralysed following 'freak accident' helped back on his feet by sport stars

A businessman left paralysed following a "freak accident" while raking his lawn has been helped back on his feet by two sport stars.

Darren Bovis, 54, lost the use of his legs shortly after feeling a pain in his back while gardening at his home in Whistable, Kent, in June 2020.

Two days later, he struggled to get out of bed, and soon realised that he was paralysed from the waist down.

Mr Bovis spent the next six months undergoing intensive rehabilitation at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Buckinghamshire.

Now Kent-based golf pro Warren Bennett and England Test cricketer Joe Denly have teamed up to raise £80,000 for a high-tech exoskeleton to get him mobile again.

Mr Bovis said: "I was doing some gardening before Father’s Day, and felt a pain in my back, so a few days passed and on the 21 June, a disc went in my spine which caused a compression.

“Instead of something cool like a shark bite or fighting off 25 people, it was just a freak accident which left me paralysed.

“I had an operation at King's Hospital in London and spent the latter part of 2020 in rehab."

But despite his hard work, the keen cricketer and golfer feared he would never be able to walk unaided again.

This video was filmed on the 14th January 2022.