A Paralyzed Body Won't Stop Talan Skeels From Racing Motorcycles

By Rajkamal

Every normal individual has his own problems in life. Everybody experiences one issue or the other sometime. But what makes a human extraordinary is when he overcomes them and lives a life of his dreams.

In a very small list of names, comes Talan Skeels Piggins, who met with an unfortunate crash that left him paralysed chest down. Most of them at this stage would ask for their life support to be taken off, exactly like Talan.

What makes his story truly remarkable is that he decided to challenge life instead, and that meant doing what he loved doing, racing motorcycles in spite of his condition.

paralysed motorcycle racer

When Tragedy Struck:

Talan, who served for the Royal Navy, came to London in search of fortune. He took up a job as a PE teacher. Six months down the lane, when he was riding to work on his motorcycle, a car clipped him and dropped him right in front of an oncoming vehicle.

The vehicle had very little time to react and ran over Talan. He was inches away from another vehicle running over him, when the driver swerved at the last moment and avoided him.

Realising a goal at the edge of frustration:

When Talan finally opened his eyes in the hospital, he was given the dreadful news saying he was paralysed chest down. Talan got very worried and that soon became frustration when even normal day-to-day activities proved to be very irritating. He wanted the doctors to pull him off life support and end his life.

thundersport motorcycle club

That's when Talan met another person, his hero, who was also paralysed for the past four years. He told Talan that there is more to life even on a wheel chair. He told Talan about skiing. Thets when a very frustrated Talan realised what more life has to offer and made up his mind to work hard to ski for the Paralympic in the British team.

Once he started skiing, he realised he wanted do what he loves the most in this world—ride a motorcycle!

Living the dream:

There was no stopping Talan now. He went to the nearest motorcycle dealer and bought himself a K6 Suzuki GSX-R1000 to race. With help from his friends, the foot controls of the bike were modded to be hand operated.

Talan is basically strapped on to his machine with velcro. He needs a person at the start and at the finish to support the bike. Talan Skeels Piggins now races motorcycles for Club Thundersport

The humour that left doctors stunned:

During one of the races, Talan had a mechanical failure and had a crash in the first corner. He came off pretty bad and was still strapped to his motorcycle. He was rushed to the hospital again, when the doctors gave him bad news saying that he had multiple fractures and they had to amputate his leg.

That's when Talan said, " Go ahead. I won't be using my legs." The Doctors were surprised when Talan told them he was already paralysed. The good doctors let Talan keep his leg.

Humour aside, watch this video of a genuine brave heart who challenged the entire world to put his disability to inspiring use, which makes him a truly extraordinary human being.

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Article Published On: Friday, October 31, 2014, 9:50 [IST]
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