‘I felt my back break when I hit the ground’

They reached the start of the route and began preparing the equipment. The climb here can often shift loose rock. Jon made the decision not to anchor his friend to the base. ‘The advantage of that is if I pull anything off, he's not stuck in one place and just going to get hit.’

This decision would prove fateful. Jon began his climb. He made good progress until he reached an overhang. Carrying heavy equipment and exposed to the full glare of the sun, he started to struggle. Attempt after attempt failed. Jon had to change his plans. He decided to climb back down to where his equipment had a more secure grip on the rocks. At least, that’s what he thought.

As Jon put his body weight on one of the lower points to remove a piece of his climbing gear, the one he was using to hold him up exploded out of position. The rope suddenly went slack, sending his friend anchoring his climb off balance. He let go. Jon fell from the cliff. 

‘Time slowed down,’ says Jon. ‘I knew I was going to hit the ground and so you just kind of just relax because, what else are you going to do really?’

‘I felt my back break when I hit the ground, which is a weird feeling, but I didn't know how bad it was. Because sports is everything to me, surfing, climbing, whatever, the first thing I thought was: “Please don't be paralyzed.” I was wiggling my toes and, as soon as I saw that, I relaxed a little bit.’

Here at the foot of the cliff, with the sea raging beneath them, there was no phone signal. Unable to move, there was only one option. ‘I said to Ash: “You're going to have to go get help.”’ 

‘And I was like: “Just make sure you don't fall. I know you won't. I trust you, but just be careful.”’ 

Jon watched his friend disappear, leaving him alone on the rocky shelf a few metres above the water. ‘I was watching the sunset, which was nice in a way. Almost peaceful.’

The rescue 

With no way of knowing if his friend had been able to call for help yet, Jon had an anxious wait. Pain was starting to course through his body, the adrenaline from the climb and fall starting to wear off.

‘I heard the boat motor coming but couldn’t see very well. The sun was setting right behind the sea at that point. I could just make out the shape of the RIB and the helmets as they were coming.’

The RIB was Holyhead RNLI’s D class Mary and Archie Hooper. The lifeboat approached the foot of the cliffs and two crew members jumped out. They climbed up the cliff from the water’s edge and onto the ledge where Jon was trapped.

‘I remember them coming up beside me. One of the lifeboat crew, Mark Wade, said to me: ‘God, you've fallen someplace. This is going to be a tricky one.’

Alongside Mark was Crew Member Holly Owen. They began casualty care, administering pain relief and trying to keep Jon as comfortable as possible. The lifeboat crew were just the first lifesavers coming to Jon’s aid. A coastguard paramedic was winched down to the cliff while the Holyhead Cliff Rescue Team gathered at the top of the cliff to plan how to get Jon out. In the bay, Holyhead’s all-weather Severn class lifeboat Christopher Pearce used their searchlight to illuminate the scene, as the D class lifeboat floated nearby in case anyone should fall into the water.

Joining Holyhead RNLI, crew from Trearddur Bay lifeboat were called to the scene to bring stronger pain relief and crew with more casualty care experience. Trearddur Bay Crew Member Mike Dorawn climbed up and joined Jon on the small shelf of rock. ‘The RNLI never, never left the ledge,’ remembers Jon. ‘The guys were there for hours. They made sure I was comfortable, had water, and wasn't in pain.’

A plan was made. The coastguard helicopter couldn’t airlift Jon directly off the cliff face, so the cliff rescue team rappelled down to Jon and carefully secured him to a specialised stretcher. Suspended by a rope above, Jon was lifted into the air and lowered onto the D class lifeboat. ‘I remember that was the scariest part, swinging into the dark above the sea,’ he says. 

As quickly as possible, the D class crew motored back to the all-weather Trent class lifeboat, where Jon was carefully passed across to the crew onboard. The lifeboat started moving into a position for Jon to be airlifted.

‘There’s one thing I’ll never forget,’ says Jon. ‘One of the crew members held my hand the entire time. She didn't have to say anything, but it was such a nice thing to do, that she knew I needed it, but nothing had to be said.’

Ready to go, Jon was once again up in the air, on his way to the coastguard helicopter. More than 6 hours after the fall, Jon was finally on his way to hospital.

The recovery

Jon spent the next week in hospital. On arrival, one of the first things they did was send him for an X-ray. He had fractures in multiple vertebrae and a broken coccyx. He feared a lengthy recovery time but, after 5 days immobile in a spinal bed, Jon sensed something. ‘I could kind of tell, I knew my body. I knew I could stand up. So I was just like: “I'm just going to stand up,” and just took it really, really slow. And as soon as they saw me standing, they were like: “Right, off you go. You can rest at home.”’

Just 2 months after his accident, Jon was back climbing again. ‘There's still a definite distrust of falling, which kind of makes sense,’ says Jon. ‘Before that fall, I'd had thousands and thousands of falls where everything had been fine. You just have to build that repetition up again.’

On the anniversary of his accident, Jon paid a visit to Holyhead Lifeboat Station to reunite with Mark, Holly and the rest of the lifeboat crew who had come to his aid. ‘There were so many people there,’ remembers Jon. ‘I was so grateful everyone could take the time to see me. I didn't expect it. I just had a cup of tea and said a thank you first and foremost.’

There was one other thing Jon wanted to do. ‘I gave them a cheque from my granddad who had passed away a couple of months prior. The RNLI was a huge part of his life and he raised money for them at his funeral as well.’

‘I can't go on enough about how grateful I am to them,’ says Jon. ‘The work they do is so underrated. Everyone needs to know the critical service they do for people like me.’

One year after the accident, Jon walked across the stage to collect his degree at his university graduation. ‘I was so glad to be able to walk across the stage.’