James Cracknell OBE has made his most poignant and emotional film so far in his role as Coulthursts brand ambassador, offering genuine hope to all families affected by traumatic brain injury (TBI).

In the first of a two-part set of films, in which he meets three inspirational women who are helping to change the lives of adults and children with serious brain damage, James hears the story about a young man whose mother helped him miraculously take his first breath after being in a coma, and on to rebuild his life and attend university.

The heroine responsible for this seemingly impossible feat is Jan Rock who used the devastating experience to found Matrix Neurological which helps other families affected by TBI to find their way to recovery and which is one of the charities which Coulthursts supports.

Jan’s son Callum had the world at his feet and his future assured, but that came to a cruelly abrupt end in August 2010 when he fell 70 feet while climbing at a well-known climbing spot near his home. When Jan rushed to the hospital where he was taken, she was greeted with the news that his skull had been smashed like “eggshells” and the front part of it had been completely destroyed.

A team of five surgeons spent 12 hours in the operating theatre trying to save Callum and rebuild his skull and he was then put on a life support machine. He contracted pneumonia caused by the ventilator that kept him breathing and developed meningitis for which he also had to be treated.

Callum’s anaesthetist told Jan that a third of all people in intensive care never come out of it and that her son was almost certainly one of them.

After ten days, the doctors insisted that he had to come off life support, so Callum’s family decided to try taking him back to something that had helped him in his childhood. When he was young, Callum had asthma and whenever his chest felt tight, he would go for a run to clear his airways.

“So, I took him for a virtual run,” says Jan. “We were on a beach in Florida where he saw a rocket launch and I was virtually running down this beach with him saying ‘can you feel the wind on you’ when I was blowing on his face.

“The doctors and the nursing staff were reducing all sedation meds and slowly reducing the support from the life support machine and, after what seemed like hours, he took his first breath, and the doctors didn’t expect it.”

Some of the medical staff were moved to tears by what was happening but, although Callum’s life had been saved, his family now faced another challenge of epic proportions.

“I had a six-foot-one, newborn baby, but we knew our son was in there somewhere and we knew we had to work to find him again, and that was the start of our long road back,” adds Jan.

The family’s efforts to rehabilitate Callum were so successful that he was able to return to education at a college where he gained an extended diploma which got him into university where he passed a foundation degree followed by an honour’s degree.

Doctors were so impressed by what the family achieved that they asked Jan to help other parents in the same situation as she had been, and this inspired her to found MATRIX Neurological with the help of funding from the BBC’s “Children in Need” appeal.

Commenting on his experience of interviewing Jan for the latest in his series of films for Coulthursts, James Cracknell explains: “One of the things I’ve learned about being affected by TBI is that it can be a long road to recovery. But as I’ve hopefully proved, recovery is possible. “Jan and Callum are living proof that achieving recovery can be possible in even the most extreme circumstances, offering tangible hope to anyone affected by TBI.

“As I say in the film, Jan is simply amazing, as of course is Callum, and I am so honoured to have had the opportunity to meet them both and make such a powerful film in my role as Coulthursts brand ambassador. I hope viewers navigating their own TBI journey will find it helpful, hopeful, and empowering.”

The full film can be viewed here.

Coulthursts works with MATRIX and several other charities which help people and their relatives who live with TBI, so please contact us if you would like more information.