'This certainly isn't the life that I planned, but it is the life that I have'
After a life-changing spinal chord injury in 2012, Jack Kavanagh is keen to speak about about the importance of remaining active. ©INPHO/Ben Brady
Pharmacy student Jack Kavanagh was enjoying a summer between first and second year college, doing something he'd done hundreds of times before, when his life changed forever.
He dove into shallow water at the beach where he loved to windsurf, and suffered a spinal cord injury. It left him with just 15% muscle function.
Jack, now 31, credits his fearlessness as a child for overcoming the challenges that lay ahead.
“After an injury like I had, there's a grieving period. And there certainly was after my injury a grieving for the life that I had and the lifestyle I had planned on. And with that comes denial and frustration and anger, and then you hit a depression, which is very understandable. At a certain point you hit rock bottom, and they call this the reconstruction phase. It's only then can you start to imagine and reconstruct new ways of being in the world."
Determined to win back his independence, Jack spent a long time reflecting on the freak accident and what it now meant for his life.
"I definitely asked the question 'Why me?'," says Jack, who now lives in Dunshaughlin Co. Meath.
"That was important because it allowed me to face the tough reality and to process some of the tough emotions that came with that. But after a while, I realised something; that question doesn't bring you anywhere. In fact, just as valid is the question 'Why not me?'
"That was a very uncomfortable question to ask, but it did give me choices and gave me choices about what I would do next. They weren't always very comfortable choices, but they did give me a way forward.”
After Jack’s injury, he took a year out of college to concentrate on rehab, then he went back to college as a full-time wheelchair user, got his degree and went on to study psychology as well as health and wellness. He now sits on the board of directors of the National Disability Authority as well as leadership development organisation Common Purpose Ireland.
Jack says that finding ways back into physical activity was a really important part of his journey.
"I think one of the things that was very challenging was that sports had always been a way, although I didn't fully appreciate it at the time, for me to manage not just my physical health but to regulate my mental and emotional wellbeing as well.
"It was probably the most stressful and change-driven period of my life, those pieces got taken away. So it's been quite a journey over the last number of years to find ways back into those things again."
That's why Jack has teamed up with Sport’s Ireland’s first National Digital Database, Get Ireland Active.
The first project of its kind in Ireland, Get Ireland Active brings together the collective resources of the Government of Ireland, Sport Ireland, local authorities, state agencies, local sports partnerships, and Irish sport’s national governing bodies to capture all sports facilities and places for people to be active in Ireland in one free, convenient, and comprehensive website, with an app due to launch in 2024.
“Every single day I wake up and I do have a spinal injury. I have all the things that go with that. It certainly wasn't the life that I had planned, but it is the life that I have," explains Jack.
"So I have to acknowledge that and find ways to make the best of it.
"In my particular case, I love to challenge myself in the outdoors and so, finding ways to do that and places that I can do that has been hugely beneficial in helping to adapt and heal. I went from just about being able to move the wheels on my wheelchair to, a number of years later after trial and error, finding a bike that worked well. And from going from 100 meters to do the first five kilometre spin and then 10 kilometres and during the summer I set myself the goal of doing 100 kilometres in a day.
"But if you don't have access to places and spaces, it's a different story. From my perspective, being active brings so much more than just the physical activity to my life.
"Having a database like this where people can find ways in no matter what stage of their journey is huge."
At any one time, it's estimated that between 13-and-a-half and 20% of the population have some form of disability. So that's between one in seven, one in five at any one time. Plus, disability is a wide spectrum.
"Being able to filter for accessibility and some of the things that might enable you to get into different sports or into different outdoor environments, whether it's an accessible bathroom or parking or knowing that there is a hoist into a pool or that there is sort of an inclusive dance class or whatever it might be in your local area.
"These are things that lower the bar for entry for people, where previously there might have been barriers to entry," says Jack.
"I also think it's really important that we have visibility of people with disabilities or different inability in the public domain out and engaging with sport, but more importantly a form of activity, whatever that looks like for you as an individual.
Jack also points out that this isn't necessarily about sport, because being active looks different for everyone.
"For one person that might be a Zumba class, or for another person, it might be a hike in the mountain. For me it might be getting out on my hand bike and going for a cycle on a greenway. And for someone else, it could be going for a walk in the local park or for a push in your wheelchair in a local park, or a forest that has benches at regular intervals so that you can sit down if you get tired.
"What being active is going to look like is different for everyone, so I think the beautiful thing about this initiative is that it's giving people the opportunity to access information so that they can meet, they can be met where they are at.”
As well as a motivational and keynote speaker, Jack has won international awards for his documentary Breaking Boundaries. He also hosts his podcast Only Human.
But Jack also credits those who supported him along the way for how far he's come.
“I came across a phrase which I think sums things up so well: 'Resilience doesn't always just live within us. It often lives between us.'
"I think that's one of the things that comes from being active, is that you do meet communities of people and they become support systems for you, and you become support systems for them. It runs both ways.
"At times this journey feels messy and it feels lonely and it can be frustrating and just a lot of trial and error, but ultimately, everything makes a little bit more sense each day. We figure it out together.”
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