Student Paralysed by Fall Graduates as Doctor

Despite being paralysed from the waist down after falling from a tree, Xander Van der Poll (pictured above) was not about to give up on his dream of becoming a doctor.

And seven years on the remarkable medical student has officially become Dr Van der Poll after graduating from the University of Bristol.

Not only that, but Xander will balance working as a doctor with training for the Paralympics, as he paddles towards Los Angeles 2028.

In 2018, a 19-year-old Xander was walking his dog when he stopped to climb his favourite tree. Swinging upwards with arms made strong by years of rugby, he slipped and fell three metres onto the roots below.

“That was the last time I felt my legs,” he recalled.

Xander had broken his back and punctured a lung. As he slipped in and out of consciousness, he was wheeled to the operating theatre he had done work experience in just a few years previously.

Xander spent nine hours in that theatre and would remain in hospital for nearly four months.

“You just don’t expect it to happen to you,” said Xander.

“I was in incredible pain for a few weeks and I was really worried about all the things I couldn’t do. I thought I wouldn’t be able to be a doctor, play rugby or just have a normal life.

“I was really lucky to have my family around me. My mum sat by my side every single day.”

Xander took his first-year medical exams from his hospital bed, six weeks to the day from his accident. The University of Bristol sent an invigilator to the hospital.

He went on to ace medical school – even winning an achievement award from the University – and excelled at several para sports, including athletics, rowing and basketball.

Eventually he found canoeing, and he now paddles a va’a – a one-person, double-hulled boat, used for millennia in Polynesia and now used in paracanoe racing.

He recently competed in his first European Championships and is now a hopeful for the 2028 games.

Meanwhile, he and his wife, Kirsty Van der Poll, who is an amputee, run a popular Instagram channel aimed at ‘destigmatising and showing the joy in disability’.

“It shows us living every day like it’s our last and like it’s a gift,” said Xander.

“Being in a wheelchair breaks down a lot of barriers between doctor and patient, it humanises me,” added Xander, who plans to work in A&E, while training hard and continuing to inspire others online.

“When I come wheeling into the room it disarms people. I’ve never had anyone doubt my abilities.”