In 2017, professional rugby player Ed Jackson was told he would likely never walk again after breaking his neck. Now the 35-year-old is a mountain climber, despite the aftermath of that accident leaving him with permanent disabilities.

Jackson and his wife Lois’ mission to help others after his own life-changing injuries is the subject of a new documentary, The Mountain Within Me, which tells the story of his accident and recovery.

Exactly one year after the accident, he climbed Yr Wyddfa, or Snowdon, the highest peak in Wales. The film also shows him tackling the Himalayas in Nepal and Aiguille Dibona, a 3,100-metre peak in the French Alps.

But Jackson tells BBC News he hopes the film will not be seen as what he describes as “a hero’s journey”.

“I was overwhelmed when I was approached to make a film, but I was also afraid to open up our lives and the lives of the people we care about. There had to be a purpose behind it,” he explains.

“And I hope the film shows that it’s not just about ‘this happens, he gets through it and then climbs mountains.’ It’s an ongoing journey, the things that I have to live with on a daily basis, but by being challenged, by going through hard things, by surviving them, I think that adds character to your life.”

The film is directed by filmmaker and life coach Polly Steele, who was also responsible for the 1997 documentary Tantrums and Tiaras about David Furnish and Sir Elton John.

“I’m not a mountain climber and I’m not a rugby fan, and when I was first approached to do it I thought, ‘What am I doing here?'” she explains. “But they said, ‘No, this is a story about mental health, and it needs someone who understands that.'”

In the film, Jackson openly talks about how the accident, which happened when he dove into a shallow pool in 2017, left him struggling with bowel, bladder and sexual functions. He now has Brown-Sequard syndrome, a neurological condition that results in weakness or paralysis on one side of the body and loss of sensation on the other. He walks with a limp.

“But the things that affect me the most in my daily life are bladder function, bowel function, sexual problems and fertility problems,” he says.

“When you put a group of people with disabilities together, especially those with spinal cord injuries, they don’t talk about the way they move. They all talk about peeing and pooping and sex, because that’s what affects them on a daily basis.

He continues: “I always have to wear a catheter bag when I’m out and about. I’ve wet myself more times than I can remember, but that’s part of living with a spinal cord injury.

“I realize how fortunate I am to have the recovery that I’ve had, even though I still live as an incomplete quadriplegic with a disability. But talking about it was really important to me in the film, because these topics aren’t talked about enough. I just want to make it more normal.”

Jackson adds that one of his other big motivations is to reframe the conversation about masculinity, as well as the mindset of young people suffering from anxiety

“I’ve had worries, fears and vulnerabilities all my life, but from the outside it was like, ‘Ed’s a tough rugby player, he never worries about anything.’ But no, Ed was a tough rugby player who just didn’t talk about the things he worried about,” he recalls.

“Now I talk about the things that worry me and that’s the bravest thing to do. It’s not less manly to say that I’m struggling or suffering, I think it’s the opposite. It would be less manly not to talk about it.

“That’s the new framework that I want to create for young people and young men who are struggling. Everyone struggles, everyone has fears, everyone has concerns and that shouldn’t be tied to how male you are.”

Photos, TV footage and phone footage show Ed Jackson playing rugby, days before the accident with his then-girlfriend Lois, and immediately afterwards in hospital.

A week after his accident, he was told he would probably never walk again due to his injuries. 36 hours later, he injured his toe.

“I was as surprised as anyone else,” he says. “Even though I had tried.”

When the medical diagnosis was made, he was still in a state of shock.

“The toe move showed that there was a connection beyond the level of my injury, and I was very lucky because if I had had a complete injury to my spinal cord, no matter how hard I tried, I would not have recovered any further,” he explains.

“And people with more severe disabilities than me have wonderful lives full of purpose, so that wouldn’t mean life was over. At that point, I tried to move because I just felt like I didn’t want to live the rest of my life thinking, ‘What if I had just tried?’”

This mindset is something he discovered during his recovery process and is something he now uses in the charity he founded with his wife, which provides outdoor adventures to people who have suffered physical injuries or trauma.

Director Steele says she found the couple “inspiring and incredibly positive” to be around.

“You can’t put it down. You meet them and you think, there must be some darkness here. And it’s not that they don’t recognize that there’s a dark side, they just don’t dwell on it. And if I’ve learned anything, it’s that you choose where you focus your thoughts.”

His condition could shorten his life expectancy, which Jackson acknowledges, but says, “I don’t really think about it that much.

“I know that my life expectancy may be shorter or that getting older will be harder on me. You deteriorate much faster,” he continues.

“I know it’s coming and I know the quality of life is changing and I’m very aware that I have to live my life as long as I can, as long as I have a good quality of life. But at the same time, I know as well as anyone how quickly medicine is changing and how quickly progress is changing. I don’t want to second guess that. I just try to take each day as it comes.”

Jackson’s next project will be as one of the presenters of Channel 4’s extensive coverage of the Paralympic Games from Paris.

He then hopes to climb Mount Kenya in 2025. According to him, there is a connection between the physical act of climbing mountains and his own mental attitude.

“A lot of times when you’re standing on the side of a mountain and it’s minus 20 degrees and everything hurts and you’re really tired, you think, ‘What am I doing? Why am I doing this again? Why do I keep doing this to myself?'” he says.

“But always when you’re done, you’ve been to a place you can only get to if you put in the effort, and it changed me emotionally. But without ruining the film too much, it’s great that the journey didn’t always go to plan.

He concludes: “It’s not about standing on top and saying ‘wow, look at us’. We were celebrating more than that – the power of being outside, mother nature, respect, surviving something and how instrumental and powerful that can be in your life.”

The Mountain Within Me is released in UK cinemas from Friday 23 August.