Lloyd

Lloyd is a Spinal Research Ambassador who is currently working in the ED at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital which is an acute spinal cord injury centre.

“My name is Lloyd, I have felt very passionately about spinal research since I can remember. My uncle was paralysed at the age of 29 following an accident whilst at work in South Wales a year before I was born and the impact it had on my family let alone my uncle Alun himself was truly devastating.”

“He was my inspiration, he went on to set up his own haulage company working tirelessly 6 days a week up until the very day of his death at 59. He would not let this injury deter him from living his life. Water skiing, scuba diving and quad biking to name but a few activities he took up despite losing the ability to walk. He was a remarkable man and I decided to study medicine with the initial desire of contributing in some way to finding a cure. Following completion of medical school, I found that my skills were better equipped for Emergency Medicine and hence I now find myself approaching the end of my training and living in Queensland Australia. My dealings with spinal injury are mainly around the immediate care and stabilisation of the spinal trauma patient in the Emergency Department.

Midway through my emergency training, I decided to take a year out of medicine and initially planned on cycling solo around the world to raise money for Spinal Research. A friend of mine, Louis, caught wind of my idea and asked if he could join me. As a joke he suggested that we do it on a tandem bicycle and that I ‘pull him around the world’. The initial humour quickly subsided after we discovered there was a world record for such a feat and that it was more than achievable. Things snowballed from there and we set a new Guinness World Record for Male Fastest Circumnavigation of the Globe by tandem bicycle, breaking the old record of 289 days with our time of 283 days. My uncle unfortunately passed away a few months before the beginning of the cycle which as you can imagine was an immensely sad time. Having said that, to achieve the record brought immeasurable joy to Louis and me. I must thank Louis for requesting to join me and suggesting the tandem as this was the final piece of the puzzle and made the trip what it was.

I had planned on further feats, namely running, however covid put paid to that and I have been studying for my fellowship exams for the last 18 months but I hope to continue with fundraising efforts in the future, albeit I am expecting our first child in June, so life will become more of a balancing act in the very near future.

One final note with regards to Spinal Research, I really believe this is a wonderful organisation, Louis and I were very fortunate to visit a number of institutions along the southern states of America and witnessed first hand the amount of time and effort that is being put in by individuals around the world to make a difference. There are many charities out there that do such amazing work but for me, particularly coming from a medical background, treating the root cause of the injury, which is what Spinal Research funds is where my passion lies. My family and I are so very grateful to all of the professors and research teams around the world and to Spinal Research for all their hard work and efforts and I believe we will find a cure”