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After falling from a bridge, Olympic judo hopeful Eric Ham broke his back in two places, narrowly avoiding severing his spinal cord and never walking again.
But within two years of the life-threatening accident, he was competing again on the international stage for Great Britain.
Ham had emergency surgery after the incident on Christmas Eve 2023, having metal rods and screws inserted to stabilise his spine after suffering a double fracture.
Doctors and surgeons were surprised he could even feel his legs.
As someone who survived a near 20-foot fall, having tipped backwards off it after sitting on a ledge, Ham readily admits he had a “lot of luck on my side that night”.
“Everyone around me kept telling me how serious it was and how close I was to never walking again,” the 28-year-old told BBC East Midlands Today.
“I nearly severed my spine in two different places. Looking back, it was a very close call to a very different path in life. It was really millimetres, centimetres of a difference, between high performance sport and not walking.
“Everyone I spoke to – specialists, surgeons, physios – they all pretty much agreed that I wouldn’t be doing judo ever again.”
Eric HamThe surgery Ham underwent – what he explains to be a “riskier” procedure that could give him the “best chance” of being involved in sport again – and a rehabilitation programme that was initially designed just to get him back on his feet, gave him hope of one day getting back on the judo mat.
It is a fierce determination not to have his sporting career ended in such a horrific way that has him once again grappling with opponents.
“No-one ever knew if I would be back at all,” Ham added.
“I considered it many times, just packing it up and just moving on with life, trying to find a job. But I just think there was something inside me that wanted to keep going and to see where I could get back to.
“You’d have to do the rehab regardless, just for general health, but I think there was a fire inside me.
“Because I wasn’t able to finish the sport on my own terms, I don’t think I could have lived with that. I had to try to get back to wherever I could.
“I owed it to myself to try.”
Before the bridge fall, Ham had been targeting Team GB selection for the Paris Olympics in 2024.
The athlete from Glossop, the market town on the northwestern edge of the Derbyshire Peak District, was part of British Judo’s world-class performance programme and had competed at both world and European championships during his senior career.
After nearly two years out, and endless hours dedicated to a rehab programme that evolved from having him walking again to laying opponents out on the mat, Ham made his first competitive appearance in November’s Oceania Open on Australia’s Gold Coast – where he won one of his three fights.
Training for the tournament and battling in competition, for all the agony and strain it put on his body at times, brought “mixed feeling” after such a physically and emotionally taxing road to recovery.
“The fighting, the throwing, the same things that causes all this pain and agony is the exact reason why you love doing it,” Ham said.
“The competition gave me a fresh start and a mental reset to continue with the rehab. I tried to keep the fun of the sport, because that often gets put to the back of your mind when you get to high performance.
“That was kind of the goal. My mum, dad and girlfriend were out there as well, and that was special.
“The result wasn’t what I wanted, but what I could probably expect after having two years out. I’ve done it now, put that behind me and I can carry on the rehab for my next one, which hopefully I’ll be in a better position for.”
Competing with the world’s best and aiming for a place at the Olympics was where Ham got himself to as an athlete before he plunged from that bridge.
And while he was carried away on a stretcher that day, he has managed to rise from the life-altering incident and climb back on to the judo mat to prove something to himself.
What comes next, Ham says, is just as impossible to predict as all he has been through already.
“I’m still pretty uncertain what the future holds,” he said.
“I’m going to keep trying. Whether I get to the same level or, hopefully, a better level than I was before is still unknown.
“I understand and appreciate the challenge I’ve got ahead of me, but we’ll see where we can get with it.”
