Eight-and-a-half years after a breaking her back in a life-altering accident, 28-year-old Ebonie Chan from Surry Hills will put her recovery to the test as she takes on The Sydney Morning Herald Half Marathon on Sunday 15 May.
In 2013, Ebonie Chan was having the time of her life on a girls holiday in Europe until a cliff diving accident shattered her spine in multiple places, rendering her unable to walk for several months.
Despite watching many of her friends jump from the cliff unscathed, Ebonie says she knew she was in trouble the moment she hit the water.
“It was the way I landed in the water, instantly I knew something was wrong, all I could feel was pins and needles from my chest down,” said Ebonie.
The traumatic accident happened in Croatia where Ebonie was rushed to hospital. Although she had broken her back in multiple places, the doctors said she would be fine and suggested she get on a plane home and get checked out there. Fortunately, Ebonie’s dad showed her X-rays to a surgeon in Queensland who told him that a piece of bone was two millimetres away from Ebonie’s spinal cord and could cause paralysis, and that she should not move under any circumstances.
With the seriousness of her injuries identified, Ebonie was medically evacuated to Frankfurt, Germany where she underwent surgery to remove her T-10 vertebrae and had metal rods, screws and bolts inserted from her T-8 to T-12 vertebrae to stabilise her spine.
Ebonie spent nearly two months in Germany recovering from the accident, through intensive rehab and physio, before she was deemed fit to fly back to Australia.
Lying flat the entire way, Ebonie was flown to the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane, home to one of the best spinal units in the country, where she would spend the next few months learning to walk again.
“I was up and about within five weeks, I could stand and put pressure down, but in terms of being able to actually go for a walk and not have to be in a wheelchair or not to be assisted, it was a good few months,” said Ebonie.
“I remember getting briefed just before going in for surgery, a team of doctors and psychologists warning I may wake up a T4 paraplegic, that was the moment it really hit me. I’ve never appreciated my body more than when I woke up and I could feel the pen the doctor was running up and down my feet,” she said.
Ebonie’s next hurdle on the road to recovery was getting back into running. She was able to run-walk within two years of the accident but it took four years to properly start exercising again. Ebonie says due to the metal rods in her spine, running is one of the few things she can do with minimal pain.
“I still can't do a sit up because there's so much metal in my back that it doesn't have the capacity to bend. Running is something that actually alleviates the pain,” she said.
“With running I found I could move in the one direction, I'm not making abrupt changes, it's great cardio as well as the mental benefits of running. I run for the mental clarity it provides and because I’m able to, I embrace the pain that comes with my injury and am grateful I can feel it.”
Ebonie’s first official race was six years on from her accident, when she jogged her way around The Sydney Morning Herald Half Marathon in 2019. Back then, just finishing was a major accomplishment as Ebonie had only managed a few training runs prior to the event. This time around, after a few solid years of running, she is aiming to break the two-hour mark.
Whatever happens on the day, Ebonie is thankful for the ability to run and the mental endurance it’s helped her build up over the years.
“When I finished in 2019, I remember getting over the line and just crying. I think it was the build-up of so many years of going through emotional waves. Being able to run some days and then other days being in so much pain and agony and not being able to move,” said Ebonie.
“For me, that's the greatest thing about running, the mental endurance that it builds to be resilient and not give up,” she said.
