By Chris Knox
Shared from Within Reach Magazine Winter 2025. Read it now!
WR was delighted when Reach member and mentor, Chris Knox agreed to share a few stories and wise words from lessons learned over the years. A fell-running, chainsaw-wielding and all round lovely human and huge fan of Reach, Chris, take it away…
Although I’ve lived most of my life in Cumbria, I’m the youngest of six Geordie boys from North Shields on Tyneside and was born in 1953…and what a journey I’ve had!
As a child I played in the streets and back lanes and revelled in being chased out of our local park for daring to play on the grass, also a WW2 bomb site, the fish quay and coastal cliffs, that Mum had told me never to do – I bet she’d an idea of where I’d been afterwards!
Infant and junior school days were pretty good; I’m still friends with a girl who made sure she sat next to me in craft lessons so she could finish the work I was always frustrated with. She’s still crafting now and recently knitted two ‘first coats’ for my first grandchild.
The Limb Clinic then was still geared up for WW2 amputees and their objective was to make me look more ‘normal’, thankfully things have changed for the better. First prosthetics were useless lumps of plastic held on with straps across my back; I enjoyed the process of mornings off school, warm plaster of Paris to create a mould for the socket, and having a new ‘thing’ of my own. Wearing it was heavy, sweaty and painful, when that tiny bit of flesh got nipped and bruised on the edges. (I tried to give one away, wrapped in brown paper, at Harvest Festival. The Minister returned it with kind words for me and Mum.)
By senior school I was big enough to have a leather and steel prosthetic, this time with a hook so I could ride bikes better and carry things. It was heavy, but the leather breathed so I didn’t get sweaty. I gained my first nickname, ‘captain hook’, from friends and another from football mates ‘one armed bandit’ – I could run faster than most and pinch the ball from their feet – both were terms of endearment. I did have one name-calling bully, but that didn’t last long.
Alongside academic studies we had woodwork and metalwork, including using a forge; I was allowed to work out the best way to hold and hammer red-hot metal. Both teachers would observe and occasionally help me to speed up a bit – I’m forever grateful.
I left school early, I was too busy helping to run a mobile disco with mates to revise, I was also doing graphic design and making money from both. This carried on into working life; manual driving test passed, I became good at getting rid of money on cars and driving (allegedly) too fast.
A proper job in accounts, lecturer, woodland and garden management, to name a few, had to fit around sports of rally driving, cycling, darts, running, triathlon, adventure racing and fell running. Still not sure what I want to do when I grow up!
I’d known about Reach for over thirty years and always thought I’d join up – ‘next year when I’m not so busy’. Then after meeting the wonderful Melissa Johns by chance on the Roman Wall before her one woman show ‘Snatched’ in Newcastle – it struck something deep inside. Totally humbled by her strength, resilience and humour in presenting a reflection of more than just testing times. That was it… I signed up to train as a mentor for RAW!
It was the first time I’d been in a room where everyone had an upper limb difference. RAW 2023 was WOW! An emotional adventure, including tears of sadness but mostly of joy. Just being there, listening, talking, learning how helpful and accepting everyone was became a revelation, yes I helped and guided, but I learned so much from our youngsters – thank you. I then bought my first guitar at the age of seventy, and my archery has improved. I’m very dependent on my prosthetics, but I’m finding more reasons to leave my arm by the back door. RAW has to be the most important event in everything we do – I have a purpose in life.
My wise words for Reach young people?
Looking back, I’ve learned most from getting things wrong! However, be yourself at all times. I think life is mentally harder now for younger people; there is so much media pressure and disruptive trolls around that didn’t exist decades back. Reach is here for all of us, and if I can make it, everyone can.
- Dating: On a school ski trip to Austria at sixteen, and very shy of girls, I was shocked when a girl asked me out, I’ve never blushed so much in my life, we exchanged letters for some time after – she’d changed my outlook on life and love. I did marry the wrong girl first time, that was expensive, the second one has lasted 39 years, I’m learning still.
- Work: Try everything people tell you that you can’t do, ask us oldies what they do and how they got there, read the Frank Letch autobiography.
- Sport: The pitch, court, pool, target, bike, race track, springboard, trampoline, wall, slope, rock, fell and even dartboard is there. If you fancy it, have a go.
- Life: You only get one go, give it your very best shot!
Read it now in Within Reach Magazine Winter 2025!
