A MAN who had life-changing injuries following a serious motorbike crash has completed a challenge he never thought possible.

Andrew Holley, 42, was involved in a crash in Bransford, on the Hereford to Worcester road, five years ago.

The Bullinghope resident broke his ribs, shoulder blade, collar bone, back and punctured both of his lungs.

He was airlifted to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham and was in a coma for two weeks and then Oswestry for four months.

As a result, he is now a paraplegic and a wheelchair user.

Mr Holley said: "I have been slowly recovering ever since; setting myself small, personal goals, achieving those goals, and then setting some more.

"I’ve been playing for the Hereford Harriers Wheelchair Rugby League team for the last couple of years and represented England in the Wheelchair Rugby Union 7s in a Tri-Nations tournament at the Royal Welsh Showground in Wales a couple a few weeks ago, which we won, beating Scotland and Wales."

He also put a team together to take on the Tough Mudder Challenge in South Gloucester- a 10.6 mile obstacle course.

The team called Mudshake consisted of an able-bodied member from the Hereford Harriers, seven members of the team's main sponsor, Fluidmaster, and Mr Holley in a homemade wheelchair.

The course involved climbing over 10ft walls, crawling under barbed wire tunnels, carrying logs over obstacles, running and crawling through dangling electric shock wires, plunging down tubes into ice filled tubs of water, and to make it more difficult, all through deep and shallow mud. They completed it in 5 hours and two minutes.

Mr Holley said: "The response and messages of support off strangers has been very overwhelming. But more importantly, I have been able to answer questions from other fellow disabled people seeking advice and give encouragement on how important it is to have something to focus on."

He has now set himself another goal of completing a skydive.

His girlfriend, Emily Cook, helped him train for the event and was also a member of Team Mudshake.