British Rugby Player Ed Jackson Is Now Climbing Mountains After He Became Paralyzed in Freak Pool Accident (Exclusive)

Jackson's story of overcoming adversity is told in the new documentary "The Mountain Within Me"

• Rugby player Ed Jackson became paralyzed after a devastating swimming pool accident in 2017

• After months of rehabilitation, he announced on Instagram in January 2018 that he was going to climb Snowdon, Wales’ highest mountain — and since then, he's kept climbing, and started Milimetres 2 Mountains, a charity to help others who experienced physical trauma

• “Nothing I'm doing now I ever imagined I'd be able to do,” he tells PEOPLE

Ed Jackson, a former British professional rugby player, climbed the famed Matterhorn in the Alps last month—something he would never imagine attempting to scale. For him, it was another in a series of mountain climbs that he has performed in the last several years such as Snowdon in Wales, Himlung Himal in Nepal, and Aiguille Dibona in France.

“I think it's the first mountain which I could genuinely be amongst mountaineers and be proud of that climb,” Ed, 35, of Bath, England, tells PEOPLE about the Matterhorn. “It's a really tough mountain. It took 20 hours, an amazing experience, [we] had the summit of the Matterhorn to ourselves. It's seriously impressive. I’m proud of that”

Even more impressive is Ed’s ability to do those climbs after an event that dramatically changed his life. Seven years ago, he became paralyzed from the shoulders down following a freak accident that eventually ended his rugby career. But with determination and the help of his wife Lois, Ed is helping others who have experienced physical trauma like he did. Now his story is the subject of a new documentary, The Mountain Within Me, which will be available digitally on Tuesday, August 20.

Related: I Was Paralyzed After Falling from a Tree. I Learned to Walk Again with My 1-Year-Old Daughter

“I have limited movement down my left side, limited sensation down my right,” says Ed, who describes himself as an incomplete quadriplegic. “Thus all four of his limbs are affected. I suffer with bladder, bowel, sexual function and temperature regulation issues. So I'm a long way off the professional athlete I was before. Having said that, I'm a long way further down the line than I should be. So all of those physical ailments come with a big dose of gratitude with it, too.”

In April 2017, Ed mistakenly dove into a part of a swimming pool that he originally thought was 6-8 feet but turned out to be 3 feet. He remembers hitting his head at the pool’s bottom and then realizing something was wrong when he couldn’t feel movement. Fortunately, his father and a friend were at the scene to pull Ed out of the water and helped him until an ambulance arrived.

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“I felt a bit sleepy,” he recalls. “But it turns out what was supposed to be a 15-minute ambulance journey to the hospital ended up taking two-and-a-half hours because they kept having to pull over to resuscitate me.”

At the hospital, Ed underwent a seven-hour operation. “My prognosis was that I had a category A1, which is a complete spinal cord injury,” he says. “So effectively the doctors told me that I was not going to walk again.”

Lois, 32, was in Cardiff in Wales when she first heard the news from Ed’s stepmother. She drove to the hospital to be by his side. “I do say now that I'm really glad that I wasn't there [at the pool], so I don't have that trauma sketched in my mind,” Lois tells PEOPLE. “[Ed’s stepmom] was trying to be really calm on the phone and didn't give me too much information. When I saw him strapped down with that red strap across his head and tears in his eyes, I realized it was really, really bad.”

A hopeful sign came for Ed during his hospital stay when he wiggled one of his toes. After four months, he was released and continued his rehabilitation at home. As he progressed over the next several months, Ed relied less on his wheelchair and used sticks and foot splints for support.

At first, Ed’s ordeal impacted Lois, who says she was scared despite trying to put on a brave face for her partner. “I didn't know what the future held,” she says. “The person I fell in love with was now completely different mentally and physically, His whole outlook on life had changed. I was absolutely fine when we were in the hospital. You're in adrenaline mode, and all I cared about was making Ed better."

“And when we went back to normal life, that just took a lot of adjustment for me,” she continues. “So, mentally I was struggling. Luckily I did find the confidence to go to a therapist, and she just told me, ‘Everything you're feeling is normal. Have you spoken to Ed about it?’ And I was like, ‘I'm going to.’ I went back that night and we had a chat. We were able to just put all the cards on the table and open up and be vulnerable with each other. That allowed us to move forward as an even closer couple now.”

Related: Paralyzed Man Saved from Burning Car by Stranger Gets a Chance to Say Thank You: 'His Angel'

As the first anniversary of his accident was approaching in April 2018, Ed announced on Instagram that he was planning to climb Snowdon, the highest mountain in Wales. “I did get some funny looks from professionals and family members alike,” he remembers about that goal. “But I was really motivated to try to pay back some of the funds that I've been supported with through the charity Restart—but also set myself a goal to keep me motivated as well as try and inspire some other people that maybe their prognosis didn't necessarily have to be the answer.”

He didn’t originally see himself reaching the top of Snowdon but wanted to at least take a crack at it. “I opened it up to anyone who wanted to come and join in, [thinking] a couple of people might turn up. But there were 70 people there who I didn't even know who joined us on that mountain climb.”

The Snowdon expedition set the stage for the charity Milimeteres 2 Mountains (M2M) he and Lois, a life coach, started in 2018. It was inspired by a hike that the couple took in Nepal.

“We just thought we've got to do something that helps others that involves nature,”  Lois says about the organization’s mission. “We use the outdoors and adventure to help people who have gone through trauma get back on their feet. I life coach each beneficiary through the program [to] get them excited about the future again because often their lives have changed so much. We were really lucky because we had such a strong support system around us [during Ed’s accident], but not everyone does. So we then become their support system to really help them and hold their hand through that process to get an exciting future.”

As told in the new documentary, Ed’s next big adventure was climbing Nepal’s Hilmlug Himal in 2022. It was a major challenge for the climber because of the harsh conditions. “We nearly didn't make it back from that one,” he says. “We ended up in a situation of survival 6,000 meters on a mountain without tents, without food, without water, just trying to make it through till daybreak so we could get rescued.”

Ed couldn't summit Himlung, but still broke a height record by someone with a spinal cord injury. “It was a huge achievement,” he says. “Actually, I'm really proud  that we did turn around when we did because I'm not sure I'd be sitting here talking to you if we didn't.”

In the same year as the Nepal expedition, Ed successfully climbed Aiguille Dibona in the French Alps. The documentary showed the breathtaking scenery that surrounded Ed as he ascended the mountain accompanied by fellow climber Leo Houlding.  “This was a test of technical ability that I'd never experienced before,” Ed says. “And of course, I can't use my limbs in the same way as someone else. It was a real puzzle to try and get to the top, as well as having a few thousand feet of exposure either side, so [it was] quite nerve-wracking. It's quite dramatic footage in the film."

As The Mountain Within Me gets its wide release, Ed will be heading to Paris to do work for British broadcaster Channel 4’s coverage of the Paralympics. Meanwhile, M2M is planning more expeditions, including those in the U.K. and Albania. Ed hopes his personal story and the film inspire people to follow their dreams. 

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“Nothing I'm doing now I ever imagined I'd be able to do,” he says. “But it just took actually having those walls bashed down and me just going, ‘Do you know what? I'll just give it a go and see what will happen,’ to end up in this place."

“I also hope that there's a strong message through the film of the power of kindness and giving back and looking after each other,” he adds. ”The most amazing thing about the charity has been the sense of community. We've felt the support from other people, and now our supporting others is helping us too. Just trying to nurture that environment of support and being kind is also a really powerful message for us.”

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