A group of Welshmen are set to embark on one of the greatest physical challenges there is by climbing Mount Kilimanjaro – and one of them will be doing it on crutches. Mal Emerson’s life changed in a matter of minutes in 1997 when he was involved in a horrific industrial accident which saw heavy machinery completely crush his leg, putting him in hospital for six weeks before he was bed-bound at home for a further five months.
It took Mal, from Port Talbot, years to come to terms with the incident and he struggled for a long time having to re-learn how to walk while also battling post-traumatic stress disorder from the ordeal. "Walking was incredibly difficult – there was no movement," Mal told us when we caught up with him in 2019. "For three years I didn't have the spring in my foot to be able to kick off and take a proper step from it. I've had six operations. There is no quick fix for the injuries I sustained – I just coped okay for 10 years and didn't really talk about things."
As well as the physical trauma Mal experienced the ordeal took a toll on his mental health. Though he was eventually able to return to work he wasn't happy and found himself particularly low in 2016, almost 20 years after the incident. "I couldn't see a future," he told us previously. "I hated the dark nights with a vengeance. Everything seemed colourless to me. I would walk as far as I could, full well knowing that I wouldn't be able to get back. It was a way of torturing and self-harming myself. I realised that I couldn't give 100% but I thought: 'Well, if ever yday I could do 1% better, then I'm getting somewhere.'"
