Ian Walker: Surviving two spinal cord injuries - and the voice that woke him from a coma episode artwork

EPISODE · Dec 2, 2025 · 31 MIN

Ian Walker: Surviving two spinal cord injuries - and the voice that woke him from a coma

from Take It From Us with Kent Johns

Ian Walker has survived two catastrophic spinal cord injuries - one in 2006 when his bicycle hit a truck, another in 2019 when a 4x4 dragged his hand-cycle 15 metres down the road.  After 13 days in a coma, nothing woke him - until broadcaster Jason Pine started talking about his favourite football team, Liverpool FC, on Radio Sport. Ian clenched his fist and slowly came back. Instead of fixating on huge goals like walking again, Ian purposely chose to focus only on what was in front of him - small, achievable goals like getting into a wheelchair, transfers, then independence. Now, he completes marathons in his hand-cycle and is studying to become a youth counsellor. Ian's message of hope and resilience is ... it's 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.We'd love to hear from you. Send us a text or a voicemail by clicking here. If you need support, here are helpful links, phone numbers and resources: https://ember.org.nz/resources/in-a-crisis/

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Dec 2, 2025

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Ian Walker has survived two catastrophic spinal cord injuries - one in 2006 when his bicycle hit a truck, another in 2019 when a 4x4 dragged his hand-cycle 15 metres down the road. After 13 days in a coma, nothing woke him - until broadcaster Jason Pine started talking about his favourite football team, Liverpool FC, on Radio Sport. Ian clenched his fist and slowly came back. Instead of fixating on huge goals like walking again, Ian purposely chose to focus only on what was in fr...

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Ian Walker: Surviving two spinal cord injuries - and the voice that woke him from a coma

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