Former Bath Rugby players Ed Jackson and Olly Barkley are inviting the city’s firms to support a not-for-profit organisation Ed has set up following a severe spinal injury that left him paralysed from the neck down and unlikely to ever walk again.
Ed sustained the injury in 2017 while diving into a friend’s swimming pool – an accident in which he hit his head so hard that he fractured his C6 and C7 vertebrae and shattered a disc in the process. 
He survived despite having to be resuscitated on three occasions and remarkably, a year on, defied medical prognosis and climbed to the summit of Snowdon in a display of immense will and determination.
Since then Ed has teamed up with former Bath and England international Olly to launch Timsbury-based M2M. The not-for-profit organisation aims to raise £250,000 for a spinal injury rehabilitation centre in Nepal – a country that is close to Ed’s heart after he visited it last year with orthopaedic charity The Neverest Foundation.
M2M stands for the millimetres of movement Ed fought for immediately after the accident to the mountains he now climbs.
Having witnessed first-hand the bleak conditions that paraplegics and quadriplegics face in Nepal – one of the world’s poorest countries – Ed vowed to make a difference and, through M2M, he is now encouraging others to join him on mountain-climbing expeditions to reach his fundraising target and build an 80-bed hospital in the country’s Chitwan region.
The first climb will be on Gran Paradiso, Italy’s highest independent peak, on June 15, then later this year, Ed will head to the Himalayas for an epic 18-day adventure to scale the 6,500m Mera Peak.
Places on both these once-in-a-lifetime trips are on sale now and M2M will help to support all participants’ individual fundraising efforts. M2M is also offering corporate sponsorship packages for the climbs as well as the exceptional opportunity to be given naming rights for the rehabilitation centre.
Closer to home, Ed and Olly will launch the first iteration of their pop-up restaurant/club concept Lit. in Bath’s Walcot Café on May 31. The pair describe it as “a high-end immersive and interactive dining experience served to a live deep house soundtrack under the darkness of candlelight”. All proceeds from this unique event will go towards the fundraising target. Tickets are on sale via www.them2mgroup.com
