Original subtitles

[sound of a film projector]

Downloaded from YTS.BZ

[film whirring]

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[sound of wind whooshing]

[intense music slowly building]

[cries out while jumping]

[splash]

[off-screen voice] [indistinct]

Yeah!

[sounds of splashing into water]

[intense music]

[music stops]

I asked the same question that I did six years ago.

Why me?

But in a different sense now.

- OK. - So you chose this spot so I can

actually look at the, the distance.

- Ready to rumble. - It's more like.

Why did God choose me to do this? Because of everything

that has happened the past six years

and the journey that it's been, it's been very tough,

but it's extremely rewarding finally seeing

what my calling, and what my purpose is.

I can finally see everything coming together.

I saw the bigger picture.

[calm music]

[calm music]

[chatter]

- Sure. - Nice. [indistinct]

Alwyn, as a young boy? We spend a lot of time together.

Obviously. My life was centered around my two boys.

We spend a lot of weekends

doing adventure things.

I grew up in the Eastern Cape, in a little town called St.

Francis Bay, which is very close to the ocean.

And that's the way that I grew up, you know,

playing by the ocean, in the in the field.

[chatter]

[emotional music]

He was very adventurous, loved the outdoors, the sea, the farm.

Riding horse, riding bike, going camping.

I just wanted to be outside, just play and just be happy.

And he wanted to be his own child.

We took him fishing as a little boy.

He must have been about three or four years old

and he caught his first fish. So we said, well,

it's such a tiny little thing, you better throw it back into the sea.

No, no, no.

He sat in his little chair in the car holding this fish,

went to bed with it, stank the whole

room out and wouldn't let go.

So he wanted that fish and that was it.

He knew exactly what he wanted. And he wouldn't budge.

Alwyn, enjoyed his sport and his outdoors forever.

I think the love for sport...

He was born with it because he loved to play

with balls or bats or golfing gear.

At a young age I notice he's got,

he does have a lot of talent.

When he first went to the little plays school,

the teacher came back to me and she said she cannot

believe this child's motor neuron and his ability

to coordinate that aspect,

you know, so well at such a young age.

He was very self-confident.

And my fondest memories of Alwyn is he was just

always a loving child.

Suppose every mother would say that,

but he really didn't give us any problems at all,

just being a normal little boy.

The things that I remember the most about him.

He always had lots of friends.

Farm life was a big part of his life. He'd like to hunt.

He'd like to invite us to go and do stuff, and he was very active,

always something planned and always something to do.

When I was at school, I couldn't wait to get home on weekends

and just go with friends, ride bikes, motorcycles,

go swimming, jumping off cliffs.

When I got to high school we started picking up a camera,

and that's when it really got fun, because now you,

know you've got an audience to share this stuff with.

One, two, three.

Alwyn is to a degree an adrenaline junkie,

if there's a place we can jump off into into the ocean,

he would be one of the guys starting it.

I would be the guy who would join, but jump feet first.

Alwyn would be the guy who jumps off head first.

You mustn't say what you're going to be doing, surprise me.

Sideways salmon. Sideways salmon. [off-screen]

[indistinct]

[upbeat music]

[sound of a garage opening]

[soft music]

At the end of grade nine, he actually said to me, “Dad, I'm going to start playing rugby.”

At the end of Grade 10, he said to me “Next year,

I'm going to be in the first team”. I said, listen, yes,

it's still tough because it's only

the Grade 12's normally that end up in the first team.

It was a big school in Humansdorp, their

rugby was at a good level.

He put his head down to things and he would start training,

exercising. The next year he played first team.

He was very driven,

focused on rugby it was a big part of his life back then.

He would always exercise. Gym is part of it.

He can't do something this weekend there's a game coming up.

He canceled on quite a lot of plans, because they played in the morning.

Can't do something Friday. Very focused on that.

But that's him, he has always, when he put his mind to it,

you won't get him to change it, you know.

And I've learnt over the years, leave him he is heading

the right direction.

His father promoted his sport a lot.

He was also the one that always supported me at my rugby games.

So when I used to play,

I always used to look out for him next to the field.

Rugby, cricket whatever sport he wanted to partake in,

he always 100 percent behind him. You know,

I always say he's like one of my best friends.

There's a really tight bond between me and my dad.

In, Noah sit! Sit! Sit. Sit.

Sit.

Sit.

Sit, sit!

Something that I love to do in my off time is just,

it can be anything where I can go outside because I really

love spending time in nature.

So I'm not someone that loves to sit at home

and watch movies or series. I'd far more just go outside,

take my dogs with, go for a walk.

So that's something that's really close to my heart.

Following on his year after completing his school,

he did the one year at Sharks Academy that did

him really well.

He then went to Stellenbosch to study.

When I got to Stellenbosch coming from the Sharks Academy,

you've built up quite an ego. And when I got there, I thought,

I'm going to get a royal invite to play for Maties.

I went through first year all the while

I was waiting for this call or someone to say,

you must come and practice with Maties,

but that just never happened.

One day I just actually packed up my training kit and I went

to practice and I just fell in line and I just started

training with. Because I thought,

you know what, if I'm not good enough,

then they'll just let me go.

So the last time that I was up

on this mountain, it's probably a good six,

seven years ago.

Being back on this mountain,

it's very nostalgic and really brings back good

memories for me.

I really enjoyed playing rugby, I really loved my sport here

and it's almost like that love really grew in Stellenbosch.

That's kind of where the fire got reignited

and coming back here I'm just reliving all of that emotion,

all of that, that feeling that I have, being back in this town.

[chill music]

Alwyn, he was always very humble,

good mannered, always on time determined,

hardworking, but a very serious kid.

I wouldn't say that Alwyn in the beginning stood out

in the position that he played because South Africa is quite

known to have very, very good loose forwards.

But what I do remember

is that he was very hard.

Really put his body on the line.

What I can remember from playing with with Alwyn

is that he was a very physical guy, big in stature,

quite a bulky guy and a fit guy.

Hell of a pleasure to play with that guy

because he's always supportive on the rugby field.

Very, very intelligent rugby player,

which meant that he was a very big

asset in playing for the rugby teams at Stellenbosch.

Playing first team for Maties and getting on that field...

It was everything that you ever wanted at that age.

You couldn't wait for the week just to get

past quick enough so you can,

get back on the pitch and play rugby.

Getting there was quite a journey and quite a process

and it's so rewarding. You know,

it took me four years just to move up through these ranks

and get there.

When I look at the field, I really feel, you know,

a sense of a journey,

a really long and hard journey to get there.

It's almost like climbing a mountain.

It's so rewarding when you get to the top

and you just look over everything.

[soft music]

I was studying engineering

and that was quite

stressful for me, you know,

balancing a very demanding engineering course and then also

playing for Maties, which is also quite demanding.

Lots of training times. And then in that time,

I developed kind of like a stomach ulcer.

The doctors discovered that his eyes got

ulcerative colitis.

Which is like small ulcers inside of your thick

intestine or your colon.

Which is quite dangerous. If you leave it untreated,

it could turn into cancer.

Made me sick for probably around six months.

I couldn't do any sports and I had to go out

of residence and basically my whole life just stopped.

Everything just stopped completely.

So eventually,

the decision was made to remove his whole colon

and they did a reconstruction of his small intestines to help

work as a colon function.

But that was horrendously painful and a long,

long recovery period.

I got the word from the doctor that,

you'll never have a normal life again

in terms of like a bowel routine and all of these things.

At the age of twenty one, you don't want to hear that.

Went through six months of rehabilitation

getting used to this new life, essentially.

And that was just a very difficult time for me.

His second year at varsity,

the next thing that I heard that he is playing rugby again.

I started to feel good again and healthy.

I started training again and I felt healthy enough

to go back and play rugby.

The interesting part is the doctors,

the specialist thereafter,

whenever a patient had to go through those operations,

they would refer to Alwyn as an example,

but look at this man.

He did the operations and today he is playing rugby again.

It's almost like I'll show you what's possible and

what's impossible. And that you can't tell me what I can

do and can't do in that sense.

It was just mind-blowing that they can

just overcome it and just do it, you know?

And that was my first taste of defying the impossible.

[wind blowing]

So we come here about twice

a week to to swim in the cold water over

here in Cape Town and the other four times a week,

I usually just swim in the swimming pool.

But you need this cold water exposure if you're

going to do an event like I'm going to do in a few days time.

The date isn't confirmed yet,

so we still don't know when it is.

But this cold water exposure is extremely

important for swimming.

Because of all the movement.

So every time I go swimming,

I put on these leg splints,

and all that basically does is just keep my legs

straight because that's the one thing I can't do while swimming.

When I swam here

for the first time, I just jumped in the water,

I didn't know about thermal gear or like a thermal

wetsuit or anything.

And I remember swimming like one mile around the island,

and I came back I was so disorientated

and confused.

And that was like borderline hypothermia.

So this thermal gear is going to make a big difference.

If I can just keep my head warm then my core

temperature will stay, you know,

stay warm throughout the whole event as well.

[chatter]

No, like one, two...

Yeah... Ok. One, two

Three, okay.

- Cold? - Fresh!

Is it fresh?

[indistinct]

Oh, yes.

[upbeat music]

[music]

That was good.

When I swim,

I just keep on imagining how it's going to be when I do

the Robben Island crossing. Water is water, hey,

so it just all feels the same.

Trying to get that familiar feeling in my

mind when I'm actually doing it.

With not knowing

when the event's going to be,

it's almost like in training you keep on holding back

because you want to save yourself.

You want to save your, you know,

your body for when it's actually

going to happen.

You don't want to tire yourself in in training.

But the reality is you can keep on doing

that for two weeks. And then you'll lose fitness.

So it's a fine balance between pushing in training,

mentally. But also saving and reserving yourself for that actual day.

I'll be ready

for it and it'll happen

exactly when it should happen.

I have this picture in my mind how it's going to be,

and I just keep on reliving that picture. Just as I said,

when I swim, I try and imagine how it is on that day

that I'm going to do it. At some point,

my faith and my belief will start, you know,

merge with the reality.

[indistinct]

I'm going to walk that way.

OK, see you.

Hey, hey. I need help!

Ok Alwyn, bye.

Guys, c'mon!

So when I was finished studying, I went and worked with my dad.

Getting experience for going into the fruit industry, and while I was doing that,

I also played rugby for Helderberg rugby club,

which is in Somerset West.

We actually played against Maties one day, and it was in Stellenbosch in the famous Danie Craven Stadium.

It was a big build-up to that game cos the previous

year we played for Maties.

So it was kind of a grudge game for us.

And I got injured in that game. Ironically, the scores were actually level at halftime.

Alwyn came on the field and he hit a ruck.

And as I was lying on the ground,

my arm was stretched out and someone came

with their knee and fell directly on this shoulder.

The pain was excruciating, but basically what happened,

I tore the muscles from my peck and my bicep tore completely out of out of my shoulder.

That was the first injury I ever had in rugby,

the first serious injury I ever had.

It took two operations, reconstructive operations to fix that.

And at that stage, that's when I knew,

ok I think I'm finished with rugby now.

I'm just going to focus on my career and building my life from there.

[pensive music]

He started working for my company.

He came to visit during the December holidays.

I got a text from the girl I was seeing at the time.

And we had plans to spend the weekend together,

but impulsively we actually decided to go through that night, to where she lived.

He left late afternoon and more or less an hour later,

a man called me and he said to me,

Do you have a son, Alwyn? I said, yes… What about him?

He said, well, he's been hurt in an accident.

So I remember on the way there I was driving,

I was in a bit of a hurry and I was skipping music

on my phone and I put it down on the middle console

of the car and it just slipped down to the passenger's side's feet.

I took my eyes off the road because I reached down

for my phone and I just wanted to pick it up off the floor.

But in that moment, the roads are very narrow there and there's no

yellow line section to drive in. And at that time,

I was only driving about 70 to 80 kilometers per hour.

So really not fast, but the my left front wheel left the road and it hit

some gravel and I got a fright when that happened

and I jerked the steering wheel.

Before I knew it, I didn't have control over my car anymore.

It swerved over the road to the right first,

and then I plucked the steering wheel again,

trying to compensate for this. But at that stage,

I could already feel that I have no control over the car.

It just had too much momentum.

And then I remember going through the thoughts,

going through my mind that I'm going to have a car accident now.

And I knew it was going to be bad because I knew

I was heading for a tree and there was also a concrete slab next to the side of the road.

And I just remember my car heading towards that.

My safety belt wasn't on because I had a sling on my

shoulder from that rugby injury, which is not an excuse,

but I wasn't wearing a safety belt.

And then I remember going towards the passenger window.

And it's such a vivid memory that the ground is coming closer.

And then I realised that the car's not on its

four wheels anymore, that the cars flipping.

There's a sound that I'll never forget,

is the screeching of the tires of the car leaving the road.

And then just a dead silence.

And I saw the ground coming closer.

Then I just heard this big, loud crash.

Went face first through the passenger window.

I cracked my neck.

And I woke up next to the side of the road.

With someone touching my shoulder and his first

words were, who should I call?

I was actually on my way to take a walk with the dogs

that afternoon, so I still had my sandals on, shorts, T-shirt.

And the call came through and he already at that point

in time conveyed to me he did call the ambulance, they are on their way.

I tried to get up, but I just felt this immense pain in my

back and my legs were ice cold, that I couldn't get up.

At first, I just thought it was shock,

that I'm unable to stand and I'm just in shock.

But I knew something was seriously wrong, so I just lay still.

He was able to tell me, OK, the ambulance are there,

they've arrived and they're busy stabilizing him

and they are taking him to the hospital.

[emotional music]

He didn't actually say where he was from or what he was doing there.

He told me his name was Hosea, and I had a look what it means,

and Hosea means he saves and he helps.

And that's exactly what he did on that day.

Did you have any contact with him afterwards?

I saw him once afterwards in rehabilitation. He came,

he checked in on me. See if everything's OK.

And then I didn't see him again.

[calm music]

So I'm just going to pick up my mom now,

and we haven't seen each other in, you know,

over a year. So I'm very excited about this.

Hello.

Surprise. - Yes!

I knew she was going to cry.

No, it is very good. Yeah, it's good to see her.

It's always difficult because their house

is like a three-story house,

and it's not that accessible for me to get there.

So it's always difficult, you know. And also,

I'm obviously busy, they are busy, and

it's not just a quick drive to see each other.

So yeah, it's quite special.

The next morning I woke up, I was so confused,

I didn't know what happened or where I am, what the date is, who's around me.

The first thought that I had was I lost my legs, so I reached

down, but I felt my legs were still there and that really

confused me.

He was bruised and blue.

You just saw this broken body lying on the bed.

He was very scared because then soon

they had to do the operation on his back to fuse his vertebrae.

I knew, I knew something was seriously wrong,

but it's almost like no one said it.

No one spoke about it.

And I just couldn't understand what's going on.

I actually asked the doctor, please,

can we just sit down and discuss this,

you know what, what is the extent of the injury?

And at that point in time you, you still think, OK,

it's a bad accident. But the operation went well.

I just broke my back. It can't be that serious.

I asked the specialist that did the operation, that difficult question.

Is my son going to be able to walk again?

In my mind, I thought I was going to get an operation and I'm

going to rehabilitate and I'm going to walk out of there.

That was my belief and I had to deal with that reality

that they don't know if I'll ever be able to walk again.

[sad pensive music]

At that moment, life stops. It becomes unreal.

This is a dream. It's not real.

The whole world is turned upside down.

It's like you're caught up in a nightmare and you don't want to face the realities.

You struggle with this thing in your head, you have a,

a son at the age of twenty five,

and he's paralyzed. And what now?

He was very, very scared.

He didn't know what was going to happen to him.

He never sort of asked us,

please feel sorry for me or anything.

He was he just wanted his family to be there with him

and not leave him alone. He was afraid. Very afraid.

It's quite funny when I look back at the photos

of the accident, I went through the passenger window,

no other door or window could open or was broken,

but I ended up on the driver's side of the car.

You know, 30, 40 metres into a field, in a fetal position.

So just looking back at these photos a day or two afterwards,

just trying to wrap my mind around it, like,

how did I even survive this? How is this possible?

Because the car flipped head over toe and tumbled a few

times and I fell out on impact.

There's no way that I should be alive.

And anyone that sees the photos will tell you that there is no way

that you should be here.

[upbeat music]

[knocking] [indistinct]

Yeah, you can come in.

Hey Stefan! No good, can't complain. What's up?

Okay, so we got a little bit of the situation,

I got a message from Derrick Frazier.

- OK? - So you know, we've been back and forth.

You know, then the swim is going to happen then it's not going to happen.

Yeah.

So.

Kind of used to this by now.

I know. I mean,

I don't want you to go out and you know,

and then be disappointed.

But listen to this and then we'll take it from there.

I was out at Robben Island

this morning, and it's thirteen point six.

It's not going to be warm enough for Alwyn.

I've got no idea whether it's going to warm up properly tomorrow.

You guys are welcome to come out,

take a chance but if he, if it's thirteen point six when he starts,

I'm certainly going to recommend he doesn't start.

I don't think that it's warm enough for him.

Sure... Hmm...

I don't know what you want to do?

Well, I didn't come this far to to stop right now.

I want to go and stare this giant in the eye.

I need to go there.

At that point hearing that news,

things happened very fast because he was released

from hospital and went to rehab.

It's an in-house rehabilitation program

which is really just building the foundation

of what then has to take place afterwards.

When I first went in there,

I thought it was actually to get me walking and rehabilitate me,

and I had the believe that I'm going to walk out of there.

So the spinal cord is a bit like a plug on a kettle, and the cord.

So the plug going into the wall into your electrical outlet is your brain.

The cord taking the current to the kettle to make it boil is your spinal cord,

and the spinal cord obviously is covered by a series

of coverings to protect the nerves, like the protective covering on an electrical cable.

So if you were to get a heavy, sharp object and drop it on your cable,

the cable would be damaged and your kettle wouldn't work.

And that's much the same with spinal cord injuries.

In Alwyn's case, T8 is a sort of mid chest area.

Eighth thoracic vertebra, basically a spinal cord function ceases to produce any

connection between brain and spinal cord.

So from mid chest, there is no preserved motor function and no preserved sensation at all.

[impactful music]

[indistinct]

As an inpatient in rehabilitation,

you usually stay anything between four and eight weeks.

Obviously, it takes a bit of time to adapt

and to learn how to become independent in a wheelchair.

There are therapists that help you with the physical stuff.

There is also someone that helps you on the mental side of things.

But as stubborn as I am, I didn't,

I didn't want anything to do with that.

I just didn't want to accept what happened.

And the thing with paraplegia is that,

a lot of it is between the ears.

You know, a patient once said to me, and I'll never forget this,

when you have a spinal cord injury,

you'll never accept the fact that you can't walk again.

But you have to learn to live with it.

As I came to the end of my stay there, which was a few months,

I realised that it's only to equip you to live a life in a wheelchair,

to teach you how to get dressed, how to sit up straight,

how to do basic life things again.

Because soon after your accident, you're not even able to sit up straight

because you don't have the core muscle, you don't have the balance.

Your whole equilibrium is thrown off.

So even the most basic tasks like putting on pants is difficult.

But when I was in rehabilitation, there were friends,

family every single day.

He was daily swamped by so many people standing outside

of his room at visiting hours to come and say hello and see him.

I kind of had to tell them some days,

I need some time alone now.

That's when depression and anxiety is kind of hiding behind the scenes.

The day I went home, everyone went back to work.

My friends went back to university or their jobs.

That's when it took a hold of me because then all

the filters were down and all the walls were down

and it was just me and my own thoughts.

And that's when it really gripped me.

I just thought I'm just going to end it.

Why do I have to wake up every day with a struggle?

Every single day I used to relive the accident.

I used to go to bed looking at photos.

I was so stuck in the past.

That was all that was consuming my mind every single day.

I just saw the wheelchair. That's all that I saw.

I didn't see any possibilities.

I love hunting, and I had a lot of rifles. I thought one day

while I was cleaning my guns, I'm just going to end it.

I can just take this pistol, and just end it right here.

Until I had a moment when... when God actually told me, but I still have plans with you.

And that really gripped me because I thought but,

how can You still have plans for me?

The thoughts went through my mind that, so if I look

at my life, as I look back on it right now,

what are people going to remember?

What is this story that my life is going to tell?

That I was this good sportsman successful at school,

university. Then I had the accident and I couldn't deal with it.

I couldn't move past that.

And something just ticked

inside of me that I can't, I can't let this end there.

I can't let that be the story.

[driving upbeat music]

And that's when I started writing a new story.

A story that, that I want people to remember.

A story of redemption, a story of resurrection and getting out of that situation.

And I think during that time, he started making up his mind,

that: "I'm not going to sit back."

This is what happened to me, and I'm going to sort it out from here.

"This is not a handicap, it's just a condition."

Soon after his discharge

from Aurora, we got him his car, got it changed for mobility.

That is kind of where the journey started to get independent again.

Once I got driving and I can

go places on my own again. That was amazing.

That was just incredible.

I discovered this whole new life that laid in front of me.

When I slowly, but surely discovered

these new things that I can do,

I'm not even talking about para sport.

I'm just talking about getting back to life again,

doing things with my friends and being able to enjoy,

you know, going out with my, my dog and in the mountains and stuff.

I got a new lease on life.

[music]

The wheelchair is never really... It's not something you notice during the day.

It's not something that ever gets in his way.

It's not something that's a problem.

I'm sure he's aware of the wheelchair.

It never seems that it bothers him in his daily life. I mean,

it's such an extension of him like, he also,

he speaks about it in the way [indistinct], he's with it every day.

It's sort of like an extra limb that he's used to having.

It has certain limitations to it, but it's part of his life now.

So I don't think it's in his way.

Through this whole depression slump and getting back

into life a bit it gave me the mental edge that if I can overcome paralysis,

then what else can I do?

I then ended up getting a hand cycle,

which a friend and I built from a few parts that we got

from a friend of mine, professional hand cyclist and wheelchair

racer Ernst Van Dyk. One of the best in the world.

And he gave me this hand cycle, but I had to adapt it first.

So we made a hand cycle that was suitable for me.

And then the bug bit me about cycling.

It's an adrenaline rush, there's speed involved, and it's extremely hard.

Once I got into cycling, I started swimming,

figuring out how to swim without the use of my legs.

[indistinct]

The first day I met Alwyn on pool deck,

he put his suit on and I was like, Alwyn, you know,

we need to get in the pool, otherwise we're not,

we're not going to finish the session. I mean, he's like,

"Yeah, but I need to put my wetsuit on and my cap and goggles."

And it took some time and I realised if we're swimming for an hour,

it needs to be an hour and a half.

Three...

I had a look at him, and I just said go four lengths let me see what you can do.

And he swam and I was like, Okay, there's, there's some serious

work to be done here if we want to achieve what his dreams are.

[soft music]

I said to him, "Alwyn, you know",

it's going to take a lot of commitment " and he said, " Well,

anything you need. What do I need to do?

"Can we do this?"

I took him for some stroke correction,

I think that was our basis point of starting just

really focusing on technique.

I got him to swim more efficiently

and then starting to introduce him to a little

bit more longer swims, shorter intervals,

the rest period, you know, aerobic phase,

anaerobic phase some sprint work.

And I've seen.

Alwyn change so much. It's fantastic to see.

He had a really big block to conquer in this past,

I want to say a month to two months before this crossing.

One day we went out to Signal Hill.

Just overlooking the ocean sunset,

and we started talking about the Robben Island

because you can see it from there.

And the vast distance to Eden on the bay to Blouberg.

And then someone spoke about ja but people actually swim it.

And my first reaction was, it's crazy. It's just crazy.

Because if you look at the distance, it's, it's incredible.

But there's something about an event or a challenge,

if it scares me enough or it's so big,

then I always ask myself, Is it possible? Can I do this?

And then I started researching and finding out more about it.

No paraplegic has done it before,

and that excited me that really, really got me excited,

that you have a chance to make history.

And I started training for this, this beast of a of an event.

[upbeat music]

[music continues]

I don't know, it's interesting, I'm not...

I wouldn't say I'm nervous. But there is some anticipation.

But I think once I get in the water and I get swimming,

because you know, before its people, its cameras, its mics, it's everything.

But when you put your face in that water, it's dead silence.

[zippers snap, rustling of material]

This is a bit tiring.

[soft music]

Okay, let's go.

The man of the next couple of hours.

[indistinct]

Yeah good.

Yeah, it's all done now.

[indistinct]

Looking forward to it.

Yes, but the weather is perfect.

On point hey?

If it's cold outside the water temperatures warmer.

The winds are blowing absolutely perfect.

This is going to be a big day.

Looking forward to it. Yeah. It's here, you're here,

we're all here, let's do it.

Finally. Spiritually the preparation was quite big.

I knew I had to to pray a lot about this event,

pray for the weather, pray for the conditions,

pray for the crew coming with me.

With an event like this you are at the mercy

of nature and the circumstances,

and there are so many moving parts.

It's not just me showing up on the day.

There are so many things that need to go right.

We are gathered today, in front of you.

Lord on this brisk, cool morning,

Father where we know that we are in your hands [indistinct]

I'm a little bit worried about him swimming the crossing,

especially for all the stuff we can't predict,

water temperature, you know what the wind is doing, that type of thing.

Are we going in the right direction.

It's not in our hands, it's not in Alwyn's hands,

it's not in my hands, so we need to trust the process and trust

the people that's on on the boat leading him

into the right direction.

One, two, three, Alwyn.

So having any spinal cord injury severely impacts your

capacity to exercise. For example,

in a swim like this, he wouldn't be able to kick.

So he's not able to propel his body forward,

which is, which creates a lot of power in swimming,

he wouldn't have his core muscles to keep his legs afloat.

So he's going to have a lot more resistance with a drag

behind him and then has a current pushing against them.

When it comes to cold water and swimming, you know,

the Robben Island swim we're talking probably about 13,

14 maybe tops 17 degrees. That's pretty cold water.

[crew talking]

He's more susceptible than an able-bodied person

in terms of becoming hypothermic and that he needs to be very aware

of and consider.

[upbeat music]

I think when it gets to that stage where, where it gets serious,

there will be protocols in place to to try

and test some... some stuff, to know if he at that stage is going into hypothermia, or not.

If we start getting to a feeling where,

where Alwyn can't handle the cold anymore,

then we cancel the swim. And we, we get it on on a different day.

But I don't think it's a thing that's concerns

me at this stage, I think he should be, he should be fine.

[speaking in foreign language]

Vitals...

I think we good yes.

Keep it close to the boat Alwyn! One and a half metres, two metres max.

It might be a bit big to start otherwise.

Come across onto here and drop him really close.

[calm music]

[indistinct]

I'm really happy with the water temperature!

This is amazing! Did you did you test it?

I have measured it yes, I wont tell you but I'm happy.

Ok cool.

If you guys ready we can go.

Let's do this.

[calm music]

[indistinct] Three...

So in the beginning of the swim, when I jumped in the water,

I immediately got a bit of a wake up call because of the cold,

and I haven't been in such cold water in about a week or so.

When I started to swim, it was, of course,

a fear of what's underneath me. You know,

for the first 100 metres or so,

I saw some sand below me and some kelp.

And then it just started getting dark.

And you just looked into this, this abyss.

I remember for the first 30 minutes,

I got a bit overwhelmed because of the current,

and there's always the fear that is it going to get worse?

And when I encountered that in the first 30 minutes,

I really thought I'm in for a long day.

I remember just, it was going through my mind,

just get through the first 30 minutes

and you can have a break and you can have

something to eat, something to drink and you can just, you know,

recuperate a little bit and have a chat to to my coach.

[indistinct]

Stroke improved so much we're actually swimming much faster

than we thought so things are going really really well.

Doing well under two minutes, really really well.

Traveling 3.2 km an hour now,

two minutes is 3 km an hour we are going at

155 per hundred at the moment.

[soft music]

That stop that I had after 30 minutes,

that was about after one point five km's,

I thought I was going to have a bit of a breather, just exchange a word or two.

But it was literally a few seconds.

I just had time to drink something.

In my mind, I told myself,

just get to the halfway mark and then reassess your strategy,

are you going to swim faster, slower? I think around 2.5 km,

that's about an hour of swimming.

I just looked at my watch and from then on,

time really went by slowly.

It really, it felt like I stood still,

and that's obviously when the current really picked up.

I really hit a wall there, mentally,

because then I started counting down the metres

to the end, very vaguely started seeing the land.

In my mind, I thought, OK, it's close. It's only, you know,

2.5 to 3 km left.

I've done that many times before. That's a swim set.

Not even.

And that's a mistake that I made.

So I think we're getting to the point now where

it actually becomes the most difficult

part because he's kind of, I guess,

about two thirds of the way now.

And I know from previously chatting to Alwyn,

this is kind of the bit where he starts struggling a bit

mentally because you're you starting to see

that you're almost there, but you're not yet there.

Your brain protects you the whole time,

so when you're doing an ultra distance events

like an ultra-marathon or something,

it's constantly telling you, you know,

don't push it too hard, don't push it too hard, you might die.

And then when you start getting closer to the end,

so when he gets closer to the end here,

you're you basically override that and you're like,

OK, well,

I'm almost there and I can suddenly sprint,

which physiologically makes no sense because you shouldn't be

able to suddenly just sprint,

but your brain takes over and it's like, OK,

you're almost there, you're not going to die.

You can do this.

So it'll be interesting to see if that happens here.

[electronic music]

I was extremely tired mentally.

You know you are so close, but it's just like it's not coming any closer.

Around 5 km, 6 km. I really struggled.

And that's why I started having some serious

conversations in my mind about fighting

for what I've worked for and I really

had to fight for it.

I really, really had to work hard at that point

because you're tired and the current is just pushing you so hard.

But there was never a thought

that I was not going to finish, that I wasn't going to make it.

It was almost like I just I would not accept it.

There's just no way that I'm going to allow

this to not happen. After waiting all this time,

I felt the weight of those two years just hanging on me,

actually the past six years.

In that one moment that it all came down to that one moment.

[dramatic music]

And when you feel that weight of everything

that you've worked for, all the struggle, all the pain,

it's almost like I saw everything in front of my

eyes and there was just no way that I'm giving that up.

There's no way that I'm letting that moment go.

[screams]

Well done Alwyn.

[indistinct]

[crowd cheering]

[indistinct]

[crowd cheering]

[crowd cheering]

[soft music]

[soft music]

[indistinct]

I was, I was so thirsty that last km.

And way back there I had to crawl... Yeah... On the boat,

what were they doing on the boat?

They were two people on the boat.

You know, before doing this swim,

I thought everything is coming together for this event.

But then after doing it and seeing what has happened and,

you know, all of the support and everything.

It's just the beginning. And there is so much left in me.

And this is just firing me up for everything that the Lord is going to ask me to do next.

[heartfelt soft music]

A few years after his accident,

it would probably be my my biggest concern...

Will he be OK in life?

Whatever we've dreamt about is has been ripped away.

It's changed.

Will he be OK?

Today, I look at him differently.

He is is writing his own future and his own history.

And he's fine, I don't need to worry about him.

He's good.

[indistinct]

See you in a few days time. [indistinct]

[gentle music]

My special wish for you Alwyn is always be the person you are.

Never change.

Sorry...

We love you the way you are.

You're Inspiration to us and you're deep,

deep in all our hearts. Just stay there.

We love you.

To come back to that book.

You write your story. You write your book.

I want my book to be an extraordinary book,

and this is only a chapter in that book.

[soft music]