Joe was seriously injured in an infamous “My car, my rules” crash, but recovered with the help of his younger sister Grace.
Anything seemed possible for Joe Robinson as, having just left public school, he was enjoying a carefree gap year before taking his university place at the start of the next academic year.
But the gifted rugby player was just 19 when the promising future that seemed guaranteed was cruelly changed in a moment, after an infamous drink-driving accident on April 7 2009 left him with a severe brain injury and he was told he would never walk again.
Not one to admit defeat, with the help and support of his loving family – in particular his younger sister Grace, then 17 – Joe, who had recently left the £36,000-a-year St Edwards School in Oxford, made an amazing recovery, astounding doctors who had given him just a three per cent chance of survival.
Joe, who regained mobility after four months, said: “The months after the crash were very tough but I wouldn’t have got through it were it not for the constant care and support of my parents and Grace.
“Grace was still at school, but would race across town in every spare moment to come and see me in hospital.
“I’m her older brother and had always been quite protective of her. But after the crash, our roles were reversed and she was suddenly the one looking after me.”
Describing Grace as his “older baby sister,” Joe says that the months and years following the accident, when she helped him to walk and talk again as well as protecting him, bonded them in a way that only adversity can.
And now, 10 years on from the crash, the brother and sister team are preparing to run what has been described as “the toughest foot race on the planet” – the Marathon des Sables – a six-day ultramarathon through the Sahara Desert.
They will be raising money for spinal cord injury charity Walk Once More, as they demonstrate the power of their enduring sibling bond.
“It’s a way of saying thank you to my mum and dad, who were there for me for so long,” said Joe, now 29, and living and working in London as a surveyor.
“And most of all to Grace, who has been a constant support over the years. I have an image in my mind of the two of us completing the race and finally being able to close this awful chapter of our lives.
“And hopefully it will show anyone else who is lying in a hospital bed right now, that with support and a bit of will power you can get through this and make it out the other side.”
The accident happened during a friend’s 18th birthday celebrations in Oxford, which Joe had joined, having recently returned from travelling in Fiji, Australia and Thailand during his gap year.
He and two others decided to accept a lift back to the home of his parents Kevin, now 67, and Judy, now 68, both champagne importers, in Thame, Oxfordshire, in a car driven by Gabriella Edmondson, then 18. All of the teenagers were either past or present pupils at St Edward’s School.
Heard saying ,”My car, my rules,” as she got behind the wheel of her Toyota Yaris, against some friends’ advice, Edmondson was one-and-a-half times the legal drink-driving limit and at 4.15am on the morning of April 7 2019, she lost control and veered off the A34, crashing into a tree.
Grace Hadman, then 17, who sat in the backseat alongside Joe was killed, while he suffered a fractured skull, broken neck and back, and punctured lung.
A third passenger, Harry Hembrow, 17, escaped with minor injuries like Gabriella, who was later jailed for 28 months after admitting causing death by careless driving while over the prescribed alcohol limit at Oxford Crown Court.
Rushed to Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital, Joe was immediately put into an induced coma, to try and reduce the brain damage he had suffered on impact.
Meanwhile, his sister Grace, who was on a Duke of Edinburgh Awards camping trip in the Lake District, was phoned by her parents, who told her to return home immediately.
Arriving in Oxford, her dad drove her to the hospital, saying: “Imagine the worst possible scenario. Whatever you imagine – it’s worse than that.”
True enough, Joe looked shocking and over the coming weeks, the family were on two occasions told he was going to die within 24 hours, due to the severity of the impact on his brain.
But, despite the dire prognosis, he made a very gradual recovery, first coming out of the coma after three weeks and later regaining the ability to talk, then write, then walk again.
Visiting every day during lunch breaks and free periods at school, Grace gave her brother the physical and emotional support that was essential to his recovery.
“I was desperate to get out of hospital and used to drive my parents and the doctors mad by constantly asking when I’d be able to leave,” recalled Joe.
He continued: “One day Grace came to visit and could see how frustrated and unhappy I was. So to cheer me up she went out and bought me a McDonald’s meal, which was my favourite.
“The hospital wasn’t very happy about it, but it was the sort of thing that really helped give me the drive to get better.”
Eventually, after two months, Joe was discharged. But, still wheelchair-bound, and suffering from severe neurological problems, such as memory loss, there was still a long road ahead, so he deferred his place to study Geography at Exeter University until the following year.
Gradually, he grew stronger. By the time he started at Exeter in September 2010, he could walk.
He left in 2013 with a commendation for outstanding performance in his degree under exceptional circumstances, qualified as a surveyor and moved to south west London.
Now, finally getting on with his life, Joe, who is single and lives in Battersea, still suffers from memory loss and occasional lapses in emotional reasoning, but he never forgets the love and support given to him by his sister.
“We are much closer than most siblings. We talk all the time and see each other at least three time a week,” he said.
That bond will soon be put to the test again when they join forces to commemorate the 10 year anniversary of the accident that changed their lives, at the Marathon des Sables, which coincidentally starts on April 7.
Grace, who works as an event manager and lives in Thame, Oxfordshire with her husband Liam Gilbert, 34, who is in property, suggested they enter the gruelling 250km race through the desert.
And, despite their parents’ understandable concerns, she and Joe signed up in July 2018 and soon began training.
“It will be incredibly tough, but it has to be to really make a statement about how far you can go from having absolutely no hope,” said Joe, who has set up a JustGiving fundraising page to raise money for Walk Once More.
“Having Grace beside me, I know we can face anything.”
Meanwhile, Grace wants the world to see how far her brother has come, when they run their marathon together.
She said: “Seeing Joe lying in hospital for the first time was something I will never forget. My mum and dad, who are usually very stiff-upper-lip people, were utterly distraught. I remember seeing my dad sobbing with his head in his hands.
“I was only 17, but I grew up a lot in those few months and realised that I couldn’t be a kid anymore. It was very hard seeing my older brother being so vulnerable, but there was no time or space to be sad – we all had to be strong for Joe and help him recover.”
Grace continued: “The dynamic suddenly shifted for us. Whereas he’d always been the one to look out for me, I was now looking out for him and treating him like the younger sibling.
“He has come so far, having been given just a three per cent chance of survival to leading a normal life, and running the toughest race on the planet will be a way of showing that.”
To donate to Joe and Grace’s fundraising page visit www.justgiving.com/fundraising/siblingsinthesahara
