Blesma Member Jamie Hull has recently spoken to The Lad Bible about how he was able to survive the plane crash that left him with third degree burns over 60% of his body and nearly cost him his life.
The doctors gave him a five per cent chance of survival and, as he admits, it took an “epic journey and an inordinate amount of grit, determination, and willpower” to pull through.
“In 2007 I was part of 21 SAS and an active young officer in the Thames Valley Police. I wanted to learn to fly, so I signed up for a course in Florida. One day during training, when I was flying solo, the plane I was in had an engine fire at an altitude of 1,000ft. The flames breached the cockpit and, as I made a concerted effort to bring the plane down, I received third-degree burns to 60 per cent of my body.”
Since joining Blesma, Jamie's been skydiving and horse riding with us! He is also using his incredible story of recovery to inspire and help young people, first responders and front line services through our Making Generation R program.
Jamie qualifies as an Associate Member of Blesma not because of his burns but because of the nerve damage he has suffered in the lower portion of both legs.
Blesma played a big part in Jamie’s journey back into the water: a trip to the Red Sea with the Association helped reaffirm his love of diving, and he has since helped out on some of the Association’s diving trips.
“It’s nice to give something back,” he says, “and Blesma’s scuba diving programme really does have great
scope because it’s an activity that is accessible to people with almost any form of disability. Once you’re underwater, you’re completely weightless, so it doesn’t matter if you’ve got limb loss because you can use the rest of your body to compensate.”
“Both physically and mentally, I get so much out of diving. There’s also a strong environmental aspect to scuba. The sport and PADI are addressing environmental issues such as plastic in the oceans, which we should all be mindful of. A small impact makes a real difference, and that can hopefully be brought into some of our future Blesma dives.”
You can hear Jamie tell his story in the Youtube Video above.
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