London Marathon Will Be My Everest, Says Hampson

Taking on the London Marathon will be “my Everest”, says former England rugby player Matt Hampson.

He was an up-and-coming 20-year-old prop at the Leicester Tigers when he was left paralysed from the neck down after a scrum collapsed in a training session with the England Under-21 squad in 2005.

He set up the Matt Hampson Foundation six years later to support and rehabilitate other young people seriously injured through sport.

Now Hampson, of Oakham, in Rutland, is planning to raise £100,000 in the 2026 London Marathon, using a specialist racing chair pushed by a team of runners.

He said the money raised would support his foundation and expand its Get Busy Living Centre near Melton Mowbray.

“London is my chance to raise funds for the foundation and also to raise awareness of what we do and who we support,” he said.

“The pressure’s on, because I’ve set a time to get under five hours, so it’s hopefully a realistic target.

“I’ve weighed up the options and weighed up the risk of the challenge, and I think it’s worth that risk.”

Hampson, 41, said: “I want to practice what we preach here, which is get busy living, and we’ve got so many beneficiaries who inspire me every day.

“I want to raise awareness of the foundation, and raise vital funds to keep us up running and doing what we do.”

He said he was excited to see and feel the specialist racing chair, adding: “I always need a challenge and I always need something to channel my energy into – and this is it.”

Hampson will be trained alongside his team, which includes a longstanding member of his care team, as well as a personal trainer from the foundation and two of his best friends.

Due to him being on a ventilator in order to breathe, a number of precautions will need to be in place during the race.

Tilly Cummings, clinical lead at the Matt Hampson Foundation, said: “If his ventilator pops off, he can’t breathe for himself, which obviously is fairly critical. So they will have to run with a backup ventilator as well.”

Ms Cummings also said Hampson would face the risk of pressure sores and would need to maintain his body temperature or risk autonomic dysreflexia – a condition which can increase the risk of brain haemorrhages and strokes.