My My name is Robin Wakeham. I knew from an early age that I wanted to play hockey. I loved the game and it seemed to love me, too. The harder I worked, the better I got.

Life before the injury – A promising hockey player

I remember how my dad went out to shovel snow off the ice in the blistering cold so I could practice even on the coldest Scandinavian days.

He even built me a life-size hockey goal cage in the barn for me where I could practice my shots and accuracy for hours.

All that practice paid off. I became the kid that could always get the winning shot in the final seconds. For years, my schoolboy career looked bright.

When I was 18 and looking at turning pro, the unthinkable happened. My team was down one point in the third quarter. I knew one of us had to make an extraordinary move and get another point.

With my eyes set on the goal cage opposite me, I was determined to make that shot – and no one could stop me.

I sped around my opponent and streaked down the ice. I was out front and going at top speed. I was only a second away from making the tying score.

The next few minutes are a fog. Something happened. Everything hurt. I remember teammates gathered over me as I was laying on the ice. The medics showed up above me, putting something over my mouth. The searing pain was clouding my mind. I couldn't figure what had happened or how I ended up flat on the ice.

I’d received a very serious debilitating back injury. In the hospital, I found out that a huge player I hadn't seen came out of nowhere and tackled me. Friends said the crowd gasped and went quiet.

The doctor said I was lucky to be alive. My back was badly injured. They could repair it and with therapy I could live a relatively normal life. But in all likelihood, the pain would continue.

That was the end of my hockey career.

Life after the injury – A career as a physiotherapist

Always the determined competitor, I focused on becoming a physiotherapist and back pain specialist so I could help others recover from the chronic pain I had experienced.

Even with this goal in sight, my back pain continued. For three years, I was almost in tears daily due to the throbbing back pain that haunted me. I saw anyone who might be able to help; doctors, physiotherapists, chiropractors, osteopaths, acupuncturists, masseuses, and personal trainers. They all had interesting ideas and theories, yet nothing worked.

Depression is a normal side-effect of chronic pain, and I couldn’t escape it. I lost my optimism and joy for life. At one point, I lost the meaning of life.

They say that when your life seems the darkest, a ray of sunlight peeks through. And that's what happened to me.

I decided to find a cure for my back pain, and so I read 50 of the best books on the subject. Little by little, I began to receive very interesting ideas on how to stop the pain...