Sport Let Me Live Again

Para athletics champion Jo Butterfield on turning her life around after an op left her paralysed from the chest down.

- Judy Ewens

Six years ago, Jo Butterfield was told she would never walk again after an operation to remove a tumour from her spinal cord left her paralysed from the chest down.

Doncaster-born Jo, now 38, dealt with the devastating blow with true Yorkshire grit. ‘I thought, “I can’t make myself unparalysed. But I can make sure I make the most of my life,” ’ she says.

While in rehabilitation at a spinal unit, Jo was introduced to wheelchair rugby. ‘When you are in a wheelchair, you are told you can’t do this and you can’t do that, and then you’re put in a rugby chair and told you can hit someone! It made me realise you can still have fun.’