Paraglider Roy Dixon's debut flight ends in agony

May 25 2010 by Tom Mullen, The Journal

A FIRST-TIME paraglider last night told of the terrifying moment his daredevil flight went disastrously wrong.

Roy Dixon was in the air for less than a minute before he plummeted 50ft to Earth, breaking his back in two places as his horrified family looked on.

The 45-year-old thrill-seeker had bought the paraglider for £300 from the auction website eBay and has no experience of the dangerous pastime.

Roy admits he got “half way” through a book about paragliding before making his first attempt in the Northumberland countryside just south of Hexham on Sunday evening.

But he made what he now knows was a disastrous decision – using 50 feet of rope to tether the paraglider to his car in the hope it would act as an ‘anchor’. Instead, it meant he was slammed into the side of a hill by a stray gust of wind, having lost control of the glider in seconds.

Roy, of Juniper, near Hexham, said: “I was in pain like you’ve never known. I was in a sitting position when I landed, so it just went straight up through my spine like a hot poker. I tried to get in a position where I could land feet-first but I couldn’t.

“I remember being up there and suddenly going ‘whoosh’ over to one direction, and then ‘wham’ straight down to the ground.

“It happened so quickly. I didn’t expect to come down as hard as I did. I couldn’t walk. I was in the foetal position and thrashing around in pain.”

Watching in horror, Roy’s wife Catherine and 11-year-old nephew Michael dialled 999 before a helicopter from RAF Boulmer arrived to airlift him to Newcastle General Hospital.

The former golf course builder, who is now a full time charity worker delivering aid to disaster zones, is still undergoing tests and awaiting surgery for two broken vertebrae.

He continued: “I feel lucky but I also feel foolish. I was looking for a thrill – call it a mid-life crisis if you want. In the end I dodged death and paralysis. I feel like I’ve got off lightly, by the grace of God.” Now Roy is determined to draw positives from his brush with death, and is finding his time in hospital useful for his Northumberland-based charity Mercy Trucks.

He said: “One thing I will say is the healthcare I’ve received is second to none.

“Part of my work involves delivering hospital equipment to countries worse off than ours, so it’s been fascinating to see how everything works.”