Bear Grylls has described thinking he would never return to adventuring after breaking his back in three places in a parachute accident.
The TV presenter spoke of his ordeal on Good Morning Britain on Tuesday as he promotes his new speaking tour, Never Give Up - which comes to Wembley Arena on April 24.
Grylls said he broke his back in three places in an incident in Africa and then spent months in military rehabilitation. Host Richard Maddely asked what “went through his mind” during the accident in which his parachute ripped during an SAS exercise in Kenya in 1996.
The 49-year-old said: “At the time you are desperately trying to sort it out, it was getting dark and you’re in a fuzz of what’s wrong… can I change it?
“In a heartbeat, boom, my world went black. I came to and it was a long journey back to this African hospital. I remember a doctor sticking a syringe in my back and the pain going. I was thinking, ‘I’m better’, and trying to get up but they’re saying, ‘You’re not better’.”
He said that he had confidence in his physicality which was dented. “It was a stumbling and difficult journey,” he said. “I couldn’t even go to the bathroom without agonising pain.”
Who is Bear Grylls?
Edward "Bear" Grylls is an adventurist best known for presenting television centred around the extreme, survival and the wild.
After a military career, he took part in a number of adventures, including climbing Everest, circumnavigating the UK on a jet ski, crossing the North Atlantic and climbing an Antarctic peak. From there, he started presenting adventurist programmes, mostly for Channel 4, such as Born Survivor, Worse Case Scenario, The Island and Running Wild.
The latter saw him take on adventures with celebrities and he later said Cara Delevigne was his favourite guest.The 49-year-old hails from Northern Ireland and was given the nickname Bear as a four-year-old. He is the son of former Tory politician Sir Michael Grylls.
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