After experiencing a near-fatal car accident almost eight years ago, which left him paralysed, Alwyn Uys recently visited his alma mater, Nico Malan High School in Humansdorp, to encourage the learners to live their lives to the full and overcome life’s challenges, as he did.
From a young age, Uys was involved with sport at school level.
After matriculating from Nico Malan in 2008, he joined the Sharks Academy as a rugby player in 2009 and then, between the years 2010 and 2013, he played for the Maties Rugby Club.
His active lifestyle as a rugby player was, however, brought to a halt in 2014, when he was in a car accident, while travelling a few kilometres outside Kirkwood, which left him paralysed from the waist down.
Uys said, after his car accident, he went into depression, and he often had suicidal thoughts.
Fortunately, he said, his faith in God helped him get out of the dark hole he was in.
Uys then decided to use his experience to motivate him to get back to achieving new goals he set out for himself.
In 2019, he completed the Ironman 70.3 and in 2020 he was the first paraplegic in the world to swim the Robben Island Crossing.
Last year he set out to complete the challenging full Ironman Triathlon in a wheelchair and was the first South African paraplegic to do so.
“Completing these physically intensive sports gave me much closure and healing to what happened to me in 2014. I realised that God is not finished with me, and He has given me new life,” said Uys.
Earlier this month, he travelled through the Kouga region and visited his alma mater, Nico Malan, King’s College, and Jeffreys Bay Primary School, where he shared his life story.
He said visiting Nico Malan brought back good memories of playing rugby on the school’s rugby field for many years.
During his visit, Uys shared stories about his time at the school, his car accident and how his faith in God inspired him to pursue his goals.
He said the main message he shared with the learners was to make the most of every opportunity.
“It is important to share my message because I feel people should not wait to change their lives; they should do the things they want to do and live for the Lord,” said Uys.
“My experience woke me up and my message is that people should live a full life; they don’t have to experience trauma before doing so.”
To further spread his message of encouragement throughout the world, Uys published his autobiography earlier this month, titled Ongeskonde, which translates to ‘Unbroken’ and can be purchased on www.alwynuys.com.
In his autobiography he covers all aspects of his life which include his childhood, sporting career, health challenges, various injuries, and his car accident.
Furthermore, he highlighted his struggle with depression and suicidal thoughts after his accident and how his faith in God helped him overcome these challenges.
In addition to his autobiography, Uys will also showcase his life story in his documentary titled Against All Odds: The Alwyn Uys Story, which can be viewed on M-Net in June; thereafter, it will be available on Showmax.
The documentary will briefly highlight areas of his childhood and his car accident but will mainly focus on his training for the Robben Island Crossing and showcase footage of the event.
“The documentary is an in-depth view of my experience completing the Robben Island Crossing, but more importantly it focuses on me overcoming this wheelchair and conquering these crazy challenges that we showcase in the documentary,” said Uys.
“It is very inspiring, and it will definitely motivate you with anything that you are struggling with in your personal life.”
His new goals include doing the full Comrades Marathon this August in Durban in a wheelchair and in the future climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in his wheelchair.
