21 years paralysed – Winston Davis’ story

Former West Indies, Glamorgan and Northamptonshire fast bowler Winston Davis’ life was turned upside down 21 years ago on November 1 when a tragic accident left him paralysed from the neck down.

Winston has been supported by the Professional Cricketers’ Trust since 2009 and he travelled to Edgbaston to discuss life being a tetraplegic with the following video and blog…

I would be on a summer’s day playing cricket and there would be people, spectators, watching the cricket in wheelchairs and you glance around and you say hi, but you never really give it much mind, you know, or thought as to how they got up that morning, how they got to the ground.

When you are fit and well, you just skip along life.

When my career was ending, I decided to retire and went back to the Caribbean.

It was the 1st of November 1997, Saturday.

I joined some members from our church, we were just pruning some trees, making a clearance, and I went up in a tree.

As the branch broke and fell to the ground, I received a tremendous blow to the back of my head from another branch from above and that drove me to the ground and… yeah, I’ve been paralysed since.

I was standing less than six feet from the ground.

The guys there rushed to me and asked me if I can move and started touching me and I couldn’t, and if I could feel, I couldn’t feel anything.

The first three months was very hard.

It was hard not just from a mental point of view but from a physical point of view.

My body was going through all kinds of changes, going from a fit person where you do the everyday things for your self to being totally dependant on another human being, even just to get out of bed, it can sap your energy.

You need help.

Once you get the help you can still have an enjoyable life.

The first thing the Professional Cricketers’ Trust wanted to offer to help me with was a computer.

I had no other means of communicating, the computer was the first great help that connected me to friends and family around the world.

Even though I don’t have the use of my hands I have the use of my arms, so using what I call a ‘poker’ I can still tap the keys.

As time went by, the computer got old, the Trust helped with a new one.

I had a vehicle and it became about 16-years-old, it had done its time and it was time for a replacement.

It was decided that members of the Professional Cricketers’ Trust, they would help me get the vehicle.

If I need help, I ask for help.

Transport has always been a big bugbear for people with disability, things you take for granted like going shopping and visiting friends and family, that’s open to me now, I can do that like anybody else.

That’s the freedom that the vehicle gives me.

There’s two ways to look at life, you can either be negative or positive.

You could either sit in a corner and cry and moan or you can get up and do whatever you can with the help that’s available.

Just by being there, knowing that when I have a need I can come to the Trust, the work that they do and the people that contribute to the work that they do, that gives me confidence.

If you are ever in need you can really rely on the Trust no matter what your need for help is. Speak to Ian Thomas via email ian.thomas@professionalcricketerstrust.org or call him on 07920 575 578.

Long may the Professional Cricketers’ Trust live.

Winston Davis

For more information on the Professional Cricketers’ Trust, click here.