Sporty student paralysed for life after treading on a sea urchin

 A student was left paralysed after he was stung by a sea urchin while on holiday in Greece.

Callum Hall, 20, trod on the creature after jumping off a boat into the sea off the island of Skiathos.

The trainee PE teacher said: ‘It felt like a bee sting. I pulled three black spines out of my toe and thought no more of it.’

But three weeks later, back home in Leeds, he developed an agonising infection.

An abscess twice the size of a tennis ball had grown on his spine and burst, damaging his spinal cord and leaving him paralysed from the chest down.

Mr Hall was told he had just hours to live and was given life-saving surgery at Leeds General Infirmary to remove the abscess.

Yesterday he said he was ‘incredibly lucky’ to be alive. He added: ‘There is only a one in 50,000 chance of an abscess like that on your spine and it’s almost unheard of for a sea urchin to cause it.’

He trod on the creature last summer and left hospital in a wheelchair last week. So far, he has regained some movement in his abdomen and can wiggle his toes.

He said: ‘I have accepted the process is going to take time but I am determined to prove the doctors wrong who said I have a small chance of being able to walk again.'

Mr Hall hopes to raise thousands of pounds for the physiotherapy, equipment and care he will need if he is to walk again.

He said: 'My aim is to raise as much money as possible for continuing physio, equipment and care.

'The reason for the urgency is that I am predicted up to a year and a half of recovery time from a spinal cord injury.

'There is still time and hope…but I will need financial help in order to get the right equipment, physio and resources I need to walk.'

The trainee PE teacher has vowed not to be defeated  - and now plans to take part in the 2016 Paralympic Games in Brazil.

He plans to achieve this by raising thousands of pounds for equipment for his battle to walk again.

He added: 'However to do this, I need equipment not found in hospitals and top of the range wheelchairs to use while training in and potentially being involved in Rio 2016 Paralympics.'

One piece of equipment he needs is called an 'Easy Stand', which helps him stand on his feet and aims to connect the brain back to the legs.

He also needs an FES (Functional Electrical Stimulation) bike which helps to get the leg muscles working again.

The determined student added: 'I realised that there are two things you can do.

'You can be depressed and you don’t get anywhere, or you can be focused and get on and do it.'