TRAGEDY TO TRIUMPH

Six years after a devastating car accident left him on the brink of life support shutdown, Marlon Laight is a bodybuilding champion on the verge of becoming a personal trainer

- Marlon Laight

Marlon Laight knows better than most how life can turn upside down in an instant. In April 2018, while reaching for an e-cigarette, he lost control of his car and crashed, resulting in severe brain injuries and partial blindness. He was in a coma for eight weeks, and part of his skull had to be removed due to brain swelling.

The accident nearly took Laight’s life, but a quick-thinking hero saved him by clearing his airway. Despite grim prospects, Laight’s mother, Helen, found hope when he moved his finger a day after doctors prepared her for the worst.

After eight months in hospital, Laight lived with his mother and carers for a year before regaining enough mobility to return home. His recovery included three intensive sessions a week at a rehabilitation centre in Leeds, where he relearned to walk and improved his coordination and visual awareness.

“I was in hospital for eight months,” he tells Men’s Fitness, “then went to live with my mother for a year with the help of carers until I was mobile enough to be able to live back at my own home.

“The neurological hospital told us that it was unlikely that I would ever walk again and would need care for the rest of my life. My mother made the decision to discharge me from the neurological hospital and care for me at home with the aid of local carers.”

First steps to first place