A RUGBY player who shattered his back on the field is to take part in a charity swim for the organisation that helped him back onto his feet.
Pete Stephenson dislocated his neck and broke two vertebrae while playing eight years ago.
The former West Hull and Dockers player, of east Hull, was given a bleak prognosis, but after months of rehabilitation he was able to walk again with the aid of crutches.
A major part of his rehabilitation was swimming and he now wants to challenge himself to swim 5km to raise money for Rugby League Cares, for whom he is an ambassador, as well as the Steve Prescott Foundation.
He said: "I began thinking about this at the start of the year. It has been a long time since my accident and the rehabilitation gets a bit mundane some days. It always helps to have a bit of a goal to reach.
"Rugby League Cares has helped me throughout my injury.
"A player in Australia has just suffered a similar injury to mine and it is only a matter of time before that happens in this country.
"When it does, Rugby League Cares is where they will go."
The 5km is the equivalent of about 200 lengths of the 25m pool at Total Fitness in Willerby.
He will take on the challenge on Saturday.
Mr Stephenson is also raising funds for the Steve Prescott Foundation.
Rugby league star Mr Prescott died in November after a seven- year battle with pseudomyxoma peritonei, a rare form of stomach cancer.
After his diagnosis in 2006, he set up the Steve Prescott Foundation to raise funds for the specialist cancer hospital that treated him, The Christie, and for Try Assist.
The foundation also now supports the Oxford Transplant Foundation.
The two met two years after Mr Stephenson's injury. He had organised a charity walk around East Park, where he was attempting to walk a mile, and The Steve Prescott Foundation asked if Mr Prescott could go along and support him.
Mr Stephenson has since taken part in fundraisers for the foundation.
He said: "He inspired me in many ways because he was a fighter and wasn't prepared to give up.
"When I felt down, I would think of Steve and what he was going through and it gave me a kick I needed.
"I guess almost everyone, at some point, has been affected by this most horrible of diseases – I lost my father to cancer in 2005.
"By forming the Steve Prescott Foundation, Steve did a hell of a lot for the Christie Charity and Rugby League Cares, and he would want his legacy to live on."
A bucket collection will be held at the pool and people can also sponsor Mr Stephenson via www.justgiving.com/Pete-Stephenson1
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