Mr Chris Prentice* IEng MIET

For a large part of his early career, Chris worked in the communications industry initially with British Telecom and in the mid-eighties with Cellnet at the start of the mobile communications era. He spent some time as a consultant involved with the design and build of Bulgaria’s new digital communications network in 2004 as a prerequisite to their entry into the European Union. He then started his own business in energy management, working as a consultant for the Carbon Trust and the education sector. He is now retired.

Following a cycling accident in 2020, Chris sustained an incomplete C5/C6 SCI and was initially completely paralysed.  However in the two years since leaving the Duke of Cornwall Spinal Injuries Unit, Salisbury, he has made a remarkable recovery.  This was not Chris’s first experience of spinal injury!  Having participated in the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Olympics in the Luge event, he went on to the 1986 World Championships in Igls in Austria and during a training run, sustained a wedge injury of T9/T10.  He was repatriated to Kings College Hospital, London for further treatment prior to making a full recovery; he considered himself very lucky!

In early 2022, Chris who now lives in Andover returned to Salisbury to work as a volunteer in the Spinal Unit on the Longford Ward.  He recognised the need for non-medical support for the patients currently going through their own rehabilitation, which he remembers all too clearly as an uncertain and sometimes frightening experience; he is keen to do all he can to help.  He was introduced to the INSPIRE Foundation by Trustee Jo Suddaby-Smith and has now volunteered his services on a trial basis as a Trustee.  He will attend his first meeting in October 2022.