Fergus Farrell has long defied the odds.
In 2018, an accident at work left the Irishman paralyzed from the ribcage down, with just a 5% chance of ever walking again.
Almost six years later, after enduring a challenging recovery, he is embarking on a 3,000-mile journey across the United States on foot.
“If anybody tells me I can’t do something, by God, I’ll do my damndest to do it,” the 46-year-old Farrell told The Post. “It’s all about taking a small step at a time.”
Farrell is no stranger to taking on challenges. On the first anniversary of his accident, the Galway native walked across Ireland, concluding his journey at the hospital where he had been told he might never move his legs again.
Since then, Farrell has completed seven marathons by rowing, run four ultramarathons, and even tried to paddle across the Atlantic Ocean in 2022.
Now, as a father of three, he is tackling his most ambitious endeavor yet: traversing six million steps from the Brooklyn Bridge to the Santa Monica Pier in just 75 days.
“When I walk across America, it’s to create awareness for people living with spinal cord injuries, but it’s also for my kids,” Farrell said. “I want to show them that when you get up and work hard, you can do whatever you want.”
‘Very, very unlucky’
On October 26, 2018, while supervising his fleet of 35 buses, Farrell bent down to lift a metal bench and felt a “massive explosion” in his back, leaving him in excruciating pain on the ground.
He quickly realized he had lost feeling in his legs and later discovered he had ruptured two discs in his back, nearly severing his spinal cord.
Doctors at the National Spinal Unit in Dublin operated on him immediately after he was airlifted across Ireland. Despite the surgery, he awoke unable to connect with his feet.
The pain was immense, and any sensation below his ribcage was absent. A surgeon told him, “I’m sorry, Fergus, but you’ve been very, very unlucky.”
The prognosis was grim: “If you get moving within the next 72 hours, you have a 5% chance of regaining some strength. However, if you don’t get movement after 72 hours, your chances drop to zero. You’ll be wheelchair-bound for life.”
Farrell fights back
For weeks, Farrell couldn’t move. Then, on the 21st day post-accident, he experienced a breakthrough: a slight twitch in his toe.
“That was a massive moment for me,” he noted.
He was moved to a rehabilitation hospital, where he spent months testing his physical limits, enduring constant pain and relying on morphine to sleep. Gradually, movement started to return.
“It was either live a life in pain and be myself, or live a life where I don’t know who I am.”
Fergus Farrell
Months later, he could shuffle on his own two feet, but his walking ability was limited. Medical staff expected him to use a wheelchair publicly and have limited home mobility.
“That’s bulls–t,” he thought.
“I said, ‘I’m walking out through those doors.’ I gave myself three weeks,” Farrell explained. “During those three weeks, I broke myself, but I broke myself in a great way. I was there to do a job.”
Less than a month later, he walked out on his own.
From rock bottom to redemption
Back in Galway, Farrell felt confined in his own home, dependent on a wheelchair and struggling with his surroundings. His marriage was also falling apart.
“Have you ever heard that saying, ‘The empty mind is a dangerous mind?’” he reflected. “When I got home, I was seeing all the negatives rather than the positives.”
He came close to ending his life, but a “good friend” intervened, leading him to spend a week in a psychiatric ward.
“It was the best thing I ever did,” Farrell recalled. “I found out, for the first time at 39 years of age, who I was, not what I was.”
He discovered he thrived when faced with challenges.
Despite not being able to walk more than 300 meters at the time, he started training to walk 206 kilometers (128 miles) across Ireland on the first anniversary of leaving the rehabilitation hospital. Concurrently, he began tapering off morphine, which he had become dependent on for pain management.
“I had to,” Farrell stated. “It was either live a life in pain and be myself, or live a life where I don’t know who I am.”
Next stop: America
Today, Farrell is an inspirational speaker, mental health advocate, and dedicated father. He has tackled athletic challenges that would push even the fittest individuals, all while coping with “24/7 nerve pain.”
“I still have a lot of disabilities. I don’t have any reaction skills. I have very poor balance,” he said.
Yet, he no longer views October 26, 2018, as the day his life unraveled.
“If you would have asked me two years after the accident what I thought of it, I would have told you it was one of the worst days of my life,” he said. “Now, if you ask me, it was the best day of my life, because I’m a lot better of a person than I ever was,” he continued. “I value everything I have rather than being envious of what I don’t.”
This perspective is driving his most significant challenge yet.
For the past 18 months, he has been preparing for Fergus Walks, a coast-to-coast trek to raise awareness of spinal injuries and funds for the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation and Spinal Injuries Ireland.
Farrell will traverse 11 states, navigating mountains, deserts, prairies, and farmland, while covering roughly 80,000 steps daily. But it’s not the challenging miles that excite him most—it’s the people he’ll meet along the way.
“Maybe they’ll come have a walk along the road with me,” he said. “I hope they do.”
A team of volunteers will accompany Farrell by car, providing food and water as he progresses. He will mostly stay in hotels, but in remote areas, he’ll camp in a van. By journey’s end, he expects to have worn through eight pairs of shoes.
Farrell’s message is simple: “Anyone who’s fighting addiction, disability, whatever it may be, just take a small step at a time.”
“All those small steps add up,” he said. “The next thing you know, you’re in a place that you could have never imagined.”
