Snowboarding Accident Paralyzed Him at 17. How He Found True Love and Why He's 'One of the Luckiest People' (Exclusive)

Christian Budney was a happy, energetic teen who loved to snowboard when a fall changed his life forever. How he managed to stay positive, build a career he's proud of, and marry the woman of his dreams

• One day in March 2006 changed Christian Budney's life forever

• "I just hit a jump wrong," he says. "I've hit that jump a million times, I've done flips, I've done so much on my board, but I just came down wrong and landed on my neck"

• Still, he considers himself truly lucky — and with positivity and perseverance, he's found a life of joy and fulfillment

It should have been another routine day on his snowboard for Christian Budney, an athletic 17-year-old growing up in Pennsylvania who'd been riding since he was 8 years old and skiing nearly every weekend since he was 3.

But one day in March 2006 turned out to be anything but — changing his life forever during a routine run down a local mountain in northeast Pennsylvania.

"I just hit a jump wrong," he says. "I've hit that jump a million times, I've done flips, I've done so much on my board, but I just came down wrong and landed on my neck."

"My first thought was, 'Oh f---,' " he says. "Next thing I knew, I was being helicoptered off the mountain."

Two weeks later, after being transferred from the hospital to the Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation in New Jersey, Budney got a diagnosis he was dreading: He'd fractured his spine, with minimal use of one of his arms, and was told he would never walk again.

Looking back, he remembers how “the night before my accident, I was playing soccer at an indoor league and texting my girlfriend about our plans to hang out later," he says. "Stuff like this just happens quickly."

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Still, he considers himself lucky, with a supportive family around him and parents who were able to make their home accessible and devote themselves to his care. (In rehab, he was in the same room where Christopher Reeve recovered in after his spinal cord injury, he notes.) 

He knows others in his situation are less fortunate.

"My mom was a big advocate of just having only positivity around me,” Budney says. The outpouring of well wishes helped, too: “I probably got thousands of cards,” he says, from “people that I didn't even know, I got cards from nuns in Rome that saw my photo and read my story, strangers saying they were praying for me.”

As he healed, he returned to high school, then headed to college to follow his dream of working with children by pursuing a career in social work.

Now 35, Budney, who lives in Scranton, Pa., is a grade school social worker who is also getting his license for counseling and therapy. 

"I'd wanted to be a school teacher since I was probably 5 years old," he says. "Now I'm a school social worker, and I work with kids that are from kindergarten to 12th grade, and I absolutely love doing that.”

But one joy he thought he wouldn’t get to experience, given his spinal cord injury, was the joy of marriage.

And then one night in 2019, at a bar in Scranton, he met a nurse named Shannon Kane.

He has one word to describe her — “fantastic” — and says they hit it off immediately.

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The two exchanged numbers and soon began texting nonstop. "She was an ICU nurse and was familiar with the world of spinal cord injury," Budney says. 

Things got serious quickly, and he says he wanted her to be his girlfriend. But he was anxious about one thing.

"I had to tell her about my colostomy bag [for bodily waste],” he says. "I was so nervous about it. One night, she was at my house, and I was like, 'There's something I have to tell you.' And I think she thought I was going to tell her that I'm an alcoholic or I have a girlfriend or something. And I was like, 'I have a colostomy—‘ She's like, 'Oh, I know!' “

Indeed, Budney says now, nothing fazes her.

"Sometimes I'm like, 'Do you remember I have a spinal cord injury?' And she's like, 'You're just Christian, you're hilarious Christian. The last thing I sometimes remember is that you are disabled,’ “ he says.

When he proposed to her in May 2022, while in Hawaii celebrating their anniversary, she quickly said yes.

"I didn't know it at the time, but apparently after we met, she went to the bathroom with our mutual friend Tierney and said, 'I'm in love with him, and I'm going to marry him,’ “ Budney says with a laugh.

The couple married on June 15 on a farm in Dalton, Pa., in front of family and friends, including a close pal of Budney’s who was with him on the day of his accident.

Budney calls it the happiest day of his life. Shannon gushes just as much.

"Christian is an inspirational person in many ways," she tells PEOPLE. "He never let his injury stop him from doing what he loves and living the most normal life possible, and he never let the accident make him angry, which I think is so important.”

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“He is always in a good mood and has a lust for life. Every morning, Christian wakes up with a smile on his face,” she continues, “and I love that so much."

He and Shannon live in a house next to Budney’s parents and he’s continuing work on his therapist’s license. 

He's also working closely with adaptive sports foundations and is passionate about advocating for other people with disabilities. (“I know a lot of people that were born with disabilities that need a wheelchair, and their insurance won't pay for it," he says.)

Shannon says: "If we ever go somewhere that is not wheelchair accessible and does not offer a temporary ramp, we always speak up. It's easy to ignore inaccessibility if you're able-bodied and not used to being with someone who uses a wheelchair. However, once you're accustomed to this, steps are the first thing you notice about a place.”

“We need to spread the word and bring awareness to people who may not realize what a big deal they can be,” she says.

As for what's next? Budney says a family might be in the cards. 

"We have both talked about having children," he says. "But I think that's probably once we are chilled a little bit from the wedding, and from [recently] building our house.”

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And though he wouldn't wish his type of accident on anyone, he also says he refuses to dwell on it.

"It's something that's shaped the person I am today," he says.

"I say that I'm one of the luckiest people in the world. I think if someone looked at me after I said that, they'd be like — are you crazy, are you on drugs?” he says. “But it is true, between the support that I have from my family and now this gorgeous wife. We're very overwhelmed with good stuff right now. I'm just blessed, honestly."