ATHER Andy Slater is a family man who loves his new home — it’s roomy, and has a huge outdoor space.

Fortunately, there’s enough room for his wheelchair, as it is likely he will never walk again.

Mr Slater, 51, a husband and father of three, was paralysed from the chest down after going for a walk on the beach whilst on a holiday in September 2014.

He stepped onto an outflow pipe, not knowing it was four metres from the ground, and slipped.

Mr Slater said: “It was panic, I realised the moment I landed that it was extremely serious.

“When I recognised the fact my wife and daughter were crying, I realised the severity of it.”

He was taken to a hospital in Haywards Heath, Sussex, where he was given an MRI scan and had his head stitched.

It was then he found out his spinal cord was pinched.

The head-hunter for a recruitment agency went to St George’s Hospital in Tooting where they inserted metal plates into his spine.

During the recovery process Mr Slater became very ill, contracting pneumonia twice. He said: “I was in an induced coma at the time and my family had come in to say goodbye.

“When I came round, everyone was putting on a brave face for me.”

He spent a month in St George’s before spending another two months in Broomfield Hospital, where he started physio and had his first experience in a manual wheelchair, and another month in Stoke Mandeville for a pressure ulcer.

He said: “After another three weeks of bed rest, I started to spend small amounts of time in the wheelchair and was given a powered chair, which gave me my first real independence since the fall.

“I continued improving and left hospital in March 2016. I received physio and occupational, mental wellbeing, family and relationship therapy.

“Meanwhile, we needed to move into a property that met our new requirements.

“It was frustrating because my wife had looked at 35 properties whilst I was in hospital and was only able to view three of them.

“None of them met our needs.”

He and his wife Denise sought help from Braintree MP James Cleverly, Braintree Council and Greenfields housing association and they were eventually offered a brand new specially-adapted Greenfields bungalow, in Millam Way.

He said: “Greenfields were really helpful, they really went the extra mile and made the whole process great.

“I love the bungalow because it has solid wooden floors – which make it easier for using my wheelchair – a huge outdoor space, a car port on the side, wide doors, and adapted kitchen units – meaning that I can be of at least some help to my wife with cook- ing.

“It is very unlikely that I will ever be able to walk again.

“My treatment involves maintaining the movement that I do have in my arms, shoulders and hands.

“Mentally, I believe positivity is absolutely the key— I am positive for me, my family and others.

“There are days when I’m fed up but it never lasts long. I believe in making the most out of life.

“There is no point looking back- wards, dwelling or asking ‘what if ?’”.

Mr Slater is now back working for his recruitment company, Adore, in Basildon.

He says he absolutely loves it.