Dieumerci Yanga never recovered from the seizure which, at the age of three, left him in a coma for three weeks. He woke up with significant brain damage, unable to talk or see clearly.
But last week, the 27-year-old was to be found working out in his local boxing ring in Rotherham with as much focus and skill as any other beginner.
“We’ve tried a range of more gentle sports and none have engaged Dieumerci like boxing has,” said Ghazala Tanveer, Yanga’s support worker.
Before he began boxing three months ago, Yanga could only communicate very basic concepts through signs and simple phrases, and experienced acute anxiety when parted from his mother.
“He still can’t talk fully but since he starting boxing, he’s not only more independent – happy to go out and about with his mother – but he can communicate so much more clearly that his mum can barely stop crying: she’s able to ‘talk’ with him properly for the first time in his life,” said Tanveer.
Yanga is not the only person with complex disabilities to find extreme sports have transformed their lives.
Kian Kotecha, from Leicester, is just 19 and has autism, ADHD and epilepsy. Six weeks ago, Kotecha started weekly lessons at his local climbing centre. He is, said his father, a new man.
“Kian can already climb walls that would be a challenge for someone who didn’t have disabilities,” said Piyush, his father. “It’s amazing: he struggles to clean his teeth but he can happily climb right to the top of the climbing wall.”
He added: “Kian has just the same need for adrenaline and excitement as any other young man but life doesn’t often offer those opportunities to those with complex disabilities.”
He has tried more traditional sports but it is clear he gets a particular thrill out of climbing, his father said. “He’s so proud of himself: he likes to show everyone the photos of him climbing because it proves that despite his disabilities, he is capable.”
Yanga and Kotecha are benefiting from a Sport England grant of £2.2m to Sense, the charity for those with complex disabilities.
The money, given across the next four years, means 5,000 disabled people will be able to take part in extreme sports including snow sports, surfing, boxing, ice-skating, goalball and canoeing.
“People with complex disabilities are no different to anyone else in the world: they want to have their senses engaged and they want to be thrilled,” said Louis Wickett-Padgham, head of sports and physical activity for Sense.
“People with complex disabilities typically live quite static, sedentary lives.
“To go from that to a sport that engages all their senses and puts them out of their comfort zones is incredibly exciting. It can feel, sometimes for the first time, that they’re really living their lives.”
These moments can, Sense believes, be life-changing – helping them at home, in education, in work and in their social life.
“The physicality and freedom of movement that comes with extreme sports is often the first time they’ve had either freedom or ownership of their own movement,” said Wickett-Padgham.
“The result is that their motor skills, balance and coordination can leap forward, massively improving their independence.”
Lin Wallace in Devon has cerebral palsy, epilepsy and is blind. She has just taken up sensory tennis, which breaks up the game into smaller chunks of activity like bouncing and catching tennis balls.
“I’ve tried other sports but they’re just not exciting: swimming, for example, is just floating around,” she said.
“Starting tennis was a huge challenge: I didn’t think I’d be able to do it but I gave it a go and feel I’ve achieved something really extraordinary,” she said.
“I’ve started tennis aged 64 – there are a lot of able-bodied 64-year-olds who wouldn’t be able to do that!”
