Stewart Mackay, a 60-year-old from Edinburgh, was left paralysed after a freak collision with another skier in Austria in March 2019. The former Scotland Under-18 rugby international and keen golfer initially believed his life was over, but he has since found a new passion in the card game bridge.
The accident and its aftermath
Mackay broke his back at almost 90 degrees in the collision on the slopes. He was airlifted to hospital in Innsbruck, where he woke up struggling to breathe. After seeing his X-rays, he thought, 'game over.' He spent almost six months in rehabilitation at Glasgow's Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, paralysed from the chest down.
The accident changed almost everything for Mackay, who still doesn't know who collided with him. Simple tasks like making the bed, washing the car, or gardening became impossible. Days once built around rugby, golf, skiing, and travel became dominated by rehabilitation and planning.
Finding a new challenge
While in hospital, a group of friends – Robin Balfour, John Gunn, Greg Cooper, Donald Wright, Simon Ross, and Rob Waugh – visited with pizzas and a pack of cards, sparking his interest in bridge. Mackay threw himself into lessons, joined bridge clubs, and now plays 4-5 hours per week, plus studies the game for half an hour daily. He has even started taking bridge holidays.
Mackay says bridge offers a constant challenge that never levels out, unlike golf or tennis. He said: "Would you go skiing without lessons? So why would you play bridge without them? Golf eventually levels out, tennis levels out, but bridge never does – you can always improve, you can always get better."
He added: "Ten years ago, if you'd told me I'd be playing bridge twice a week, I'd have laughed. Now I absolutely love it. It's incredibly social, you meet brilliant people, you're constantly learning and you never stop improving. I only wish I'd started years earlier."
Adapting to a new life
Mackay admits he still misses his old life but refuses to dwell on it. He said: "If you spend your life moaning about what's happened, you never move forward. I can't walk, and that's frustrating, but that's life, but you adapt, and then you find something else that makes you excited to get up in the morning."
