'I was sitting on the railing of my third-floor balcony - then my life changed forever'

A young man has been left paralysed from the neck down after plunging from the balcony of his third-storey flat.

Callum Falconer had been sitting on the railing of the balcony prior to the fall, which he admitted was “his own fault”. The 26 year old said it was a “miracle” he was still alive after he snapped his neck and broke his spine, ribs and hips in the accident.

Doctors told him if the break on his neck had been “three millimetres higher”, he would have died instantly.

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Callum was airlifted to the Royal London Hospital following the fall and remains there - having spent the last three weeks undergoing a three-stage neck surgery, which has involved placing metal rods in his neck, repairing the break and removing bone fragments.

Callum, a mechanic from Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, still only has minimal movement in his arms but he says he's "just happy to be alive” and is determined to make the best recovery possible.

Discussing the moment he fell, he said: "I remember my neck snapping and I thought that this was it. I remember I couldn’t speak, feel my arms and everything went still.

“I shut my eyes. I knew what I was hearing - the snap - and I felt nothing as I drifted off.”

Callum’s neck broke close to his shoulder blades. The catastrophic injuries he suffered could see him regain partial movement of his body across two years.

He is currently on the waiting list for spinal rehabilitation at the London Spinal Cord Injury Centre, Middlesex, but his care team says it could take "years."

Callum and his family have been told the first two years of his recovery are crucial - and any difficulties he's left with after that will likely stay with him for the rest of his life.

He said: “It is amazing I am alive, one of the amazing things is knowing I have the support of my family who are doing everything they can for me. I am just grateful that I have that breath of air, that my brain hasn’t been destroyed and that I am not dead.

“It is very hard, it is so annoying when you wake up and you have an itch, the basic things you can fix if you can move.I try to stay positive, but it is lonely and upsetting, it was something so simple that changed my life and I would say never to take life for granted.

“All those little things, everyone can go to work, everyone gets to eat and with me, I cannot, so I have to wait for that with my life.”

Callum's twin brother, Marley, 26, said the pair wanted to reiterate how "life is too short" - and want to discourage people from "taking things for granted."

"Before the accident, Callum was quite fit, healthy and very, very independent," Marley said. "He found it hard to accept and ask for help. It's even more difficult for him, in this position - he can't even scratch his nose without help.

"But, he's seeing everything in a new perspective - he won't take anything for granted again."

Connor has a GoFundMe to help relieve his financial strain and fund accessibility equipment.