Paralyzed jockey Graham Lee says: ‘Without hope you have nothing’

A Grand National-winning jockey has spoken of the importance of maintaining a sense of hope after a horrific fall left him paralyzed from the neck down.

Irishman Graham Lee, who lives in Bedale, North Yorkshire, suffered serious spinal cord damage when he was dislodged from his horse at Newcastle Racecourse in November 2023.

“My whole life, my family’s life, all of our lives changed in the snap of a finger, and it was hard,” the 49-year-old said.

Lee spoke about his accident ahead of a fundraising event later at Wetherby Racecourse, where he is supporting the Spinal Research charity.

“It was tough, I won’t tell you lies, it wasn’t easy,” he said.

“I can’t hug my wife, I can’t put my arm around my daughter after a musical theater performance and say well done. I can’t put my arm around my boy after he plays 90 minutes of football.”

Lee rode to victory in the Grand National at Amberleigh House in 2004 in a successful career that has seen him ride more than 1,000 winners over the jumps.

The father-of-two then moved to flat racing where he achieved similar success, including winning the 2015 Gold Cup at Trip to Paris at Royal Ascot.

His accident happened on November 10, 2023 when he fell from his horse in the starting boxes at Newcastle Racecourse.

“All I remember is hitting the ground and saying, ‘oh no, I’m in big, big trouble,’ and I held on for about 30 seconds and then I was gone,” Lee said.

“I don’t remember anything from then until about twelve or thirteen days later.”

The accident left Lee paralyzed from the neck down and dependent on caregivers 24 hours a day.

He said, “Every person with a spinal cord injury probably says the same thing: ‘What did I do to deserve this?’

“But as my wife said, ‘there’s no rhyme or reason, it just is.’

“So you have no choice but to try to go through with it.”

Lee is now helping to raise awareness of the work being done by Spinal Research, a charity dedicated to finding treatments for spinal cord injury.

He is attending a fundraising event at Wetherby Racecourse on the opening day of the show jumping season.

He is joined by international equestrian sports Saffron Cresswellwho was paralyzed from the chest down after a fall at Bramham Horse Trials in June 2024.

Tara Stewart, chair of Spinal Research, said this type of support was ‘invaluable’ in raising awareness of the condition and possible treatments.

“What we’ve been doing for decades is investing a lot in finding something that works, and now we’re in a major breakthrough phase where we’re finding things that can restore function,” she said.

“What we need now is the money to get them from where they were discovered in the laboratory to the hands of people like me so they can actually have an impact.”

Now in its 35th year, Wetherby’s Northern Raceday for Spinal Research has raised more than £800,000 for charity.

Lee said he was still taking it day by day and couldn’t look too far into the future, but stressed the importance of finding new treatments.

“If you don’t have hope, you have nothing,” Lee said.

“So I’m going to help Tara and the Spinal Research team.

“Whatever they need from me, I will do my utmost to raise awareness of this injury. I will do what I can to help.”