Ed Jackson is a former rugby player who co-presents the Paralympics in Paris. He was born in Bath in 1988 and went straight from school into a professional rugby union career – captaining England at Under-16 and Under-18 level, playing for Bath, London Welsh and Newport Gwent Dragons before suffering a catastrophic and almost fatal spinal cord injury in 2017. After initially being told he might have no movement below the neck, Jackson has fought back to scale mountains, set up the charity M2M (Millimetres To Mountains) to help people people who’ve been through physical or psychological trauma, and present rugby and the Paralympics on Channel 4 – where he will be part of the team covering the Games from Paris.
Ed Jackson is also the subject of new documentary film The Mountain Within Me, charting his recovery and his adventures in Snowdonia, the French Alps and the Himalayas after his life-altering accident. In his Letter to My Younger Self, Ed Jackson shares the wisdom he’s learnt along the unexpected journey his life has taken him on..
. At 16, I was at Millfield boarding school. I’d been to school in Bath, where I was born, and ended up on a scholarship to Millfield as a swimmer.
It took three weeks to realise they took swimming way too seriously for my liking. So I gave up swimming, much to the despair of my parents, but then started playing rugby more seriously. I was also a hip-hop fan, listening to Jay-Z, Eminem and Snoop Dogg, which is quite interesting for a .