Ten years ago, Dave Ball was an average 26-year-old beer-drinking rugby lad.

These days he's not so much average as inspirational.

Weekends Dave once spent at the pub are now devoted to throwing himself out of aeroplanes or off bridges tied to an elasticated rope, speeding down snow-covered mountains or getting competitive on the basketball court.

This dramatic change in lifestyle is all the more startling considering Dave broke his back in 1994 in a car accident, which left him paralysed from the waist down for the rest of his life.

Dave, who lives in Hove, said: "You either stop or you keep going.

"People say to me, 'I don't know how you keep going,' but you've just got to. You either die or you deal with it. So I got on."

Despite his philosophy that life does not have to stop moving just because your legs have, Dave puts a lot of his positive attitude down to the help he has received from a charity called Back-Up.

The Back-Up Trust was set up by freestyle skiing champion Mike Nemesvary in 1986 after an accident left him in a wheelchair.

It is the only organisation of its kind to rehabilitate people with spinal cord injury through challenging outdoor activities, entirely funded by donations.

The trust's patrons include David Vine and Valerie Singleton.

Dave, 36, said: "Spinal injury changes your life. It turns it upside down and Back-Up goes a long way to turning it the right way up again.

"Once you've been up a mountain in the Lake District in a wheelchair, getting round your local supermarket isn't quite such a challenge."

As three people a day suffer a spinal cord injury, Dave believes help of this sort should be given a higher priority.

He said: "My life has improved immeasurably from when I broke my back.

"Obviously it is devastating but thanks to Back-Up I've learnt better ways of dealing with it.

"I would never have envisaged doing these sorts of things right after my accident and I couldn't have done it without Back-Up.

"During a Back-Up week one of the key things you learn is teamwork.

"There are eight chair users and eight able-bodied people and the first event is a hill climb.

"There is no way you could get up there on your own in a wheelchair so it's a big team effort and it really bonds the group together."

For most of us the idea of ascending a steep hill just for the fun of it is tiring enough, let alone tackling it with just your arms putting in all the effort. But at Back-Up, every obstacle is seen as a challenge.

Dave said: "We do canoeing, kayaking, sailing, land yachting, hand-cycling, rock climbing and abseiling.

"At one of the centres they've got an assault course and at another they've got a zip-wire.

"There are all sorts of things you can do. It's great fun and you learn an enormous amount about yourself and other people.

"Other courses include skiing, waterskiing and there is an off-road vehicle weekend coming up this weekend.

"There are lots of fund-raising events throughout the year, including skydiving, white-water rafting, a ramble and a sports dinner."

Dave has worked at Southern Water in Falmer for 11 years and things have changed dramatically for him during that time.

Once pitied as he struggled with the difficulties of being in a wheelchair, today his adventures are the subject of envy as he recalls the excitement of a skiing trip to Canada with his girlfriend or the British Lions rugby tour he went on alone three years ago in Australia.

He said: "I've always been out there and getting on with it, so I've always been met with a fair amount of admiration.

"I'm more gregarious and outgoing now. I was timid at first and my skills weren't quite there but now I'm 100 per cent independent."

Back-Up can be contacted on 020 8875 1805.