Tom Chambers loves to talk.

On a spring morning in 1981 Tom Chambers’ life changed forever. A car accident near Drogheda snapped the Newport man’s spine and left him paralysed from the chest down. This week he talks to Michael Gallagher about his life and the joy he takes from living every day to the full.

By Michael Gallagher,
A reporter for Western People in July 2002. (Local paper)

Tom Chambers loves to talk. He has a way of telling stories that brings the past to life and the tale of his existence so far is one, which generates a great sense of hope and determination.
Born in Rockfleet just outside Newport Co. Mayo he grew up surrounded by seven brothers, eight sisters and parents Mick and Maud. He enjoyed life, going to school, doing the chores and playing games the way kids do. He loved sport and was soon playing football with the local teams.
“I enjoyed playing football and in 1964 we had a great minor team in the area. We were called Mulranny but we drew lads from the whole region stretching from Ballycroy to Kilmeena. I was lucky enough to captain the team and on one special evening in McHale Park we beat Ballina Stephenites in the County league final. That was a famous team and we had some fine footballers like Joe McAndrew, Stephen Conway and Christy Loftus. I scored 1-9 that evening and it is a game I will never forget. Later that year we won the West championship but lost the county semi-final to a Jimmy Duggan-inspired Claremorris. I loved the games and the excitement and will never forget those special days.”
He spent happy times learning the painting trade from Sean Kelly and in 1964 when Burrishoole GAA team went to London on tour Tom was in the party. He saw the abundance of work available in the English capital and was soon back there looking for a start.
“I worked all over England from Birmingham to Ipswich and Bristol to Norwich. I followed the work, the money was good and the craic was mighty. I played some football around London with St. Jarlath’s and St. Pat’s and enjoyed life. There were lots of lads from home over there and when there was a big match on in Ireland like an All-Ireland Final we all gathered to listen to it on the radio. We would tie the radio and the aerial to a lamppost and gather around it listening in silence. The locals didn’t know what was happening and often called the police who would come along and often listen to the game with us.”
Tom enjoyed life in England but in the autumn of 1980 he returned to Dublin where the building boom was just about to begin. He wasn’t long there when fate intervened and changed his life forever. On March 30th 1981 the car he was driving hit a wall just outside Drogheda with devastating consequences.
“I wasn’t found for five hours after the accident and when they got to the car I was trapped under a pile of stone from the wall. I could only tell them my name and was then taken to a hospital in Drogheda before being flown to the Central Remedial Clinic in Dun Laoghaire.
“That day back in Mayo my parents were going to Mass when they heard on the radio that a man named Tom Chambers had been in a serious accident near Drogheda but they never thought it was me as I was living in Dublin at the time.”
Soon they learned that it was indeed their son who had been injured in the accident and life would never be the same again. In Dun Laoghaire Tom was asking the nurses could he soon go home as there was a lot of concrete being delivered that week but it wasn’t long before he realised that he was in serious trouble.
“I looked around me and saw some frightening sights. Fine people lying there in beds unable to move a muscle and I knew that I had some major problems but I also realised that I was very lucky. There was an Irish rugby international there called Gus Barrett who had passed his final exams in dentistry only days before his life was turned upside down and I thanked God that I was as good as I was.”
Months of physio and hard work were put in before Tom saw Rockfleet again but in December he arrived home full of trepidation about what the future held.
“I was very nervous wondering what would happen if something went wrong but there was no need to worry, everything worked out fine.”
Fundraising locally and in London and Cleveland meant that Tom could buy a car and soon he was on the open road. He valued his independence and later moved to a house of his own in nearby Newport. He settled into life in West Mayo and could often be found driving a carload of friends to dances all over the county. The man from Rockfleet wasn’t going to sit around complaining about the hand he had been dealt.
Then in October 1985 the local sergeant Tom Rochford, set him a challenge. He believed that Chambers was capable of competing in the Dublin City Marathon and told him he would support him all the way. Tom took up the challenge and the rest is history.
He trained four or five hours every day. Rochford, Martin O’ Malley, Kevin McManamon and a local committee secured funding for a new lighter wheelchair and after endless preparation and a few local half-marathons Tom found himself on the starting line for the 1986 marathon.
“Bertie Ahern was the Lord Mayor of Dublin at the time sent us on our way. I was going well at first until one of the front wheels came loose on the chair but I pulled into a garage and borrowed a spanner, which kept me going until I got to the service vehicle.”
Soon he was back on course again and as he raced down the Malahide Road a special Mayo lady shouted out her support.
“Rosaline Gallagher was there urging me on and I got great courage from that. She had done so much on the sporting scene worldwide and I was honoured that she turned out to wish me luck.”
The Newport man raced onwards and as he went up Westland Row a spectator shouted that there was only a mile to go.
“For the first time in the race I thought about the distance I had travelled and I put in a special effort to get to the finish because there were many people who had doubted my ability to finish.”
Soon Tom had crossed the line and one of his life’s’ ambitions had been achieved. He would complete another two marathons and numerous other distances in the following years as his fame spread far and wide. The man from Rockfleet became one of Newport’s best-known residents.
These days Tom doesn’t race anymore but he still keeps in touch with the people he met on the athletics trail. He waits anxiously for the opportunity to help another Mayo wheelchair athlete enter the racing game. His head is filled with tips for aspiring racers and he knows someday that another Mayo racer will scorch through the Dublin streets.
His days are filled with the IT lessons he gives in Mayo Tech and the designs he makes for wheelchair accessible buildings. He is enjoying life in Newport and is thankful for the hand life has dealt him.
“If I hadn’t run into that wall I might be dead now, who knows? I have a great life filled with wonderful people and remember it’s only my legs that are paralysed, not my brain.”
The man who has packed more into his life than many others has a lot of living to do. He is already planning his next project and the ones after that. Tom Chambers is a unique man, one of Newport’s finest.


Shona,

My accident happened at about 3.30am on the last Saturday in March 1981. I had been socialising with friends in Castlebellingham in Co. Louth when I decided to return to Philsburg Avenue Fairview, Dublin. The last thing I remember was lighting a cigarette and then closing the window and apparently I fell asleep hitting a stone wall measuring 12ft high and 22ft long completely knocking the wall covering my car and that probably why I was not found until around 8.30 that morning. I was totally confused and had injections that sedated me and as I would not give anyone my surname it was impossible for all concerned to find out anything about me regarding making contacts. As the letter said that my parents heard it on the radio I also had a girlfriend who was living with me and she did not know where I was and all she could do was report me missing. It was very hard on her as well as my parents as we were engaged to get married later on that year. We first met in London in 1972 and lived together over there until we moved back to Dublin in 1980.

I left home when I was a young lively lad in 1964 and to return back in 1981 confined to a wheelchair was something my father could never accept until the day he passed away. Plans were been made behind my back to get me into a home and when I found out it caused problems and would have left and live with my girlfriends family but that would have broke my mothers heart as she was a nice kind woman who wanted to look after me. All this and no support from the rest of my family had a strain on our relationship because when they found out that I would not be getting any money from the accident I felt that it was not right on my girlfriend and after a lot of tears one night while she was down from Dublin I done the hardest thing I ever had to do and that was to ask her to go back to London and find a good man for herself.

By now I had purchased a car and took her for two weeks holiday to Cork and Kerry and when that was over I drove her to her home in Galway and after filling up the car with petrol I handed every penny I had to my name to her and said goodbye. It was 40 miles home but it was the hardest drive in my life but she never got married or went to London just like myself. We met once since and had a few drinks and a great chat, but life is cruel and that’s life!!

I did not get much support from my family but that will not stop me helping others until I am not able to do so. I was not free until I got my own house to live in but as I write this I see a bit of “ Susan Boyle” in me because like her I got on very well with my mother.

Hope reading this does not bore you as I have not spoken about this before to anybody.