Why I dive on my birthday
Diver Cliff Devries had a promising career ahead when he was paralysed after surgery on a spinal cord tumour. Now he鈥檚 a diving coach and does a special birthday dive each year.
Cliff Devries was a talented young diver hoping to make the US Olympic team when he discovered he had a life threatening tumour on his spinal cord. He was given less than a year to live. He opted to try an experimental and risky surgery, and when he woke up he was paralysed from the neck down. But he realised that his diving training had prepared him for the gruelling recovery, and eventually enabled him to walk again, become a coach to new young divers and dive each year to celebrate his birthday.
Presenter: Rajan Datar
Producer: Alice Gioia
Picture: Cliff Devries on the diving board
Credit: ESPN
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The Outlook Podcast Archive
True stories of ordinary people and the extraordinary events that have shaped their lives
