Getting into a whole new fight

Inspiration may not be every disabled person’s favourite word, but Major Phil Packer doesn’t shrink from it. He tells Sunil Peck about how he’s channelling his new-found positive energy into finding ways to empower and inspire young disabled people

It challenges assumptions that someone who sustained serious spinal injuries from a rocket attack while serving as a soldier in Iraq could count himself lucky. But after what he describes as the dark days, when doctors said that it was highly unlikely that he would ever walk again, Major Phil Packer says that becoming disabled has given him a more positive outlook on life.

“I had quite a bit of energy in what I was doing before, but I feel more channelled now in what I want to achieve and I have a greater understanding of life compared to what I had before I was injured. I’ve listened to a lot of people in the last 18 months, and heard lots of opinions from people I wouldn’t have otherwise spent time with, and I’ve got a better understanding of the disability community.”

He talks with such exuberance about life as a newly disabled person that one almost forgets that he became disabled comparatively recently, in horrific circumstances, after being paralysed in Basra in February 2008.

“I found it very difficult initially to cope with, being in a medical facility when you don’t expect to be is always going to be quite difficult.

“Then you look around and see the people that are there with you and it’s the people who have injuries that are worse than yours that really make you think, actually, I have a very lucky life. I also think that because I survived and I have a second shot at life then, yeah, on reflection, I want to make the most of it.”

Two years on and with the support of the army, doctors, his family and disabled people including elite wheelchair athlete Paula Craig, yachtsman Geoff Holt and adventurer Karen Dark, Phil is determined to do all he can to pass on what he regards as his good fortune by creating opportunities for others. He is now striving to secure backers for his own charity for young disabled people.

Rather than relying on public donations, Phil wants to attract grants and support from construction and communications companies.

“The plan is to build a centre called the British Inspiration Trust where any disabled person between 16 and 25 can come for a residential course and enjoy an experience where they are enthused by other people who are finding success in different areas – business, music, the arts or sport – in their age group. Tanni Grey-Thompson would be a fantastic mentor, she’s someone I’ve admired for many years.”

Although he is concentrating on setting up his own charity, Phil also campaigns on behalf of a number of charities for young and disabled people. His initial campaigning was for injured servicemen and he raised over a million pounds for the charity Help for Heroes by completing the London Marathon on crutches, dragging himself up El Capitan mountain in America and rowing across the English Channel.

Although Phil’s decision to raise money for Help for Heroes was motivated by a passion to help other injured service personnel, it also enabled him to keep his link with the military alive while he was exiled in a civilian hospital.

“In hospital, I had this huge void with the men and women I’d commanded no longer around me, near me. So how do you replace that? The only way I could replace that was this fundraising campaign. At the time I thought I was doing it for those servicemen but on reflection I think I needed it as much to get me through those difficult times.”

Phil joined the army in 1993 aged 21. He spent four years as a private before going to Sandhurst to train as an officer and was commissioned into the military police in 1997.

At the time of the rocket attack, Phil was in charge of around 120 men and women. He had served in Northern Ireland, Bosnia and Kosovo.

Phil will be leaving the army in early 2010. The decision to leave was a tough one. He still had his sights set on a job with the Ministry of Defence (MoD) months after he began fundraising. Indeed, one of the factors which determined the location of his accessible accommodation was that it was close to the MoD.

But after pushing hard to stay in the military, Phil began to question whether he would enjoy a military career where his disability would mean that he would be primarily based behind a desk.

“I decided after the marathon just before I went to America in June that I needed to move away from being in the army and because of the people I met during the marathon and also meeting young people with disabilities, I thought that charity work was something I really would like to get involved in more.”

The experience of disability is still so new to Phil that he is still learning about life as a disabled person. He likens his situation to a fact-finding mission but is eager to learn as quickly as he can.

“I don’t think I ever realised how difficult life could be living with disability. I don’t think I knew a huge amount about it because I lived in a world which didn’t really have very many people with a disability. I’ve been very fortunate to have lived a good life for 17 years in the armed forces, and it’s meeting people who struggle or find things difficult that I now find unacceptable. So where my values are is that I want to put young disabled people first and give them the same opportunities that everyone else has. I had a very unexpected year with a very unexpected profile and my mother has always said use it well and that’s what my plan is.”

Phil has been speaking to scores of young disabled people to learn as much as he can about disability.

But he is yet to encounter any of the more politicised campaigners in the disability rights movement.

“I’d be really interested to meet people who have been campaigning for many years because I keep finding out things I never knew before about access, and what’s not available. The only way I can make my centre successful is to listen to the people that are experts in the field of disability. For example, people have asked me if I will include non-physical disabilities in its design. That’s a new area for me which I’ve got to get out there and understand.”

But what about Phil’s campaigning and fundraising methods? Have the marathons, mountain climbing and channel crossings provoked hostility from disabled people, angry that he is perpetuating an image of disabled people as conquerors of tragedy?

“The things I have done and the things I will do have not been done to send out any negative messages. I’m really sorry if people feel that way. I’m disabled and I want to make the most of life and that is by providing more opportunities and support for other people who are disabled. I wanted to climb El Capitan not because I needed any more money, because I’d reached a million pounds by then, but because I’d met these mountaineers who do work in centres with climbing walls and I think it’s a fantastic thing to do. So I’ll carry on doing these different sports and if it provides the opportunity for more young people with a disability to try out these different sports, then I think that’s a good thing. But if I’m approaching it in the wrong way and if someone wants to educate me, I’m willing to listen.”

There could be more expeditions in the future, but if there are, Phil is anxious that they involve disabled people too.

Phil’s other immediate priorities are to find somewhere else to live and a way of earning some money when he leaves the army.

“This sounds awful, but I wish I was in a position where I was sponsored to do what I’m doing. I want to work on the British Inspiration Trust, do the charity work and make things happen. But by going off to earn money for a couple of days, that’s two days when I can’t be doing the important stuff.

“If I was sponsored then I could spend all that time making a difference.”

It would be surprising if Phil Packer manages to avoid criticism from some disabled people for his use of endurance sport as a campaigning tool for much longer. But any criticism would be wide of the mark and would ignore the fact that Phil has embraced life as a disabled person and is desperate to involve disabled people in his campaign work.