World wakeboarding champion Brad Smeele spent years undergoing intense rehabilitation after a devastating injury that left him unable to walk, but that hasn't stopped him from his drive to help others and raise awareness. If anything, it has inspired him further.
"It's both bringing awareness to my injury and what we go through," he explains.
In his latest efforts, he completed his second Wings for Life World Run earlier this month which saw him and some friends making their way around Auckland's viaduct. The global challenge involves runners and wheelchair users throughout the world covering about 12km - all at the same time no matter the time zone.
"It was pouring rain and freezing cold and windy and everything, but we had an epic time," Smeele told Newshub.
He knows how important raising awareness and vital funds for spinal cord research is. Smeele was left a quadriplegic after breaking his C4 vertebrae in 2014, during a wakeboarding accident in the US.
"All of the entries, all of the donations go to the Wings for Life Foundation for research for spinal cord injury and hopefully try [to] find a cure, so it's something I wanted to get behind," he said of the world run.
"I want people to have a better understanding of people in my position… I just like to try to be very open about it so that people have a better understanding of how we may want to be treated - just make people more aware of what we go through on a day-to-day basis.
"Sometimes people try to help too much when it's not necessary and so it's finding that balance, soSmeele was left a quadriplegic after breaking his C4 vertebrae in 2014,
Smeele is now seven years into his recovery and admits he finds it hard to hear a cure is just around the corner.
"I do get sick of hearing, 'the cure's only five years away.' A friend of mine had an accident over 20 years ago - he's been hearing that whole time that it's only five years away," Smeele said.
"It is a little bit frustrating and seems like that finish line is moving away at the same pace as I'm moving forward, but I think there will be something - they are making progress.
"For me, I think it was around that three-year post-injury point where I took on acceptance."
But with the help of others driving the movement, Smeele believes a cure will come.
"That's why I got involved, mainly this year, to do what I can to get more funding in… the more money we raise, I feel the quicker this thing may come around."
As part of wanting to be as open as possible about his journey, Smeele is writing an autobiography he hopes will be finished by the end of the year.
"My main goal with that was to give a more honest view and a more realistic idea of when this cure might be - how far away it might be," he said.
"As much as I am holding out for a cure and I'm excited for one, and I'm positive that something will come about, I've gotten myself to a point where I'm OK with my situation.
"I'm in the position at the moment where I would like to be able to help others who are going through a similar thing, and that's what I really hope that my book will bring."
