John Kennerley speaks for the first time about injury

In April John Kennerley had just been woken from a coma, his neck was broken and he could not speak, move or even breathe unaided.

Life had changed forever for him and wife Kerri-Anne and doctors warned that he might never regain his ability to move or speak.

Just eight months later he has done both.

"[Kerri-Anne] is very loving and she has been the strength of my whole recovery. Without her I don't think I would have attempted it but, as I say, she was there when I woke up and she has been with me every day," John was able to tell Sunday Night.

"It is really, really been hard ... I have appreciated it, she never faulted. Never faulted."

When we visited John in hospital in April he could only mouth words to communicate, but he has since pushed his body beyond what doctors ever expected.

"My legs have come on very well, I have even got to the point where I can stand in the swimming pool and I can actually walk a bit of a way unassisted, it might not look very pretty, but I can walk and that gives you an amazing amount of self-confidence and make you feel things are getting better."

John can now move both his lower arms slightly but he is still coming to terms with how little he can do for himself.

"One day I was with one of the physios and I was saying, 'I have got a bit of movement in this hand now it is coming back' and, you know 'I’ll soon be able to, looking forward to when I can write a cheque' or something and she said 'Oh I don’t think you will ever be able to do that with your injury'," John said.

"She was the first person to tell me, she hadn’t realised she told me… and I remember just crying and crying and crying."

For Kerri-Anne, the progress is astounding but she is still coming to terms with the future looking vastly different from their 32 years together so far.

"Getting him back home that’ll be the best thing since sliced bread," Kerri-Anne said.

"I hate this new life to be quite frank, I just hate it... it's awful, but it's not something we're alone in. Living in that hospital is a whole bunch of people in exactly the same position."

"If I could you know, rub Aladdin’s lamp or wave a magic wand, boy I want my old life back and I want my husband back - I have my husband, we're just different now."

The accident that changed it all happened in a split second at a golf tournament near Coffs Harbour on the NSW north coast.

"We were just sitting on a verandah talking to a couple of women there and they ask 'Can we get a photo?'"

"We all step up and John goes to step out of the [photograph] …lost his balance and fell backwards."

For first time, John is able to talk about exactly what happened next.

"I spear headed off the top of it. It wasn’t a particularly big fall, it was only about 800mm but I just landed on my head and neck. There was a crack."

"I remember coming to and realising I couldn’t move anything. I couldn’t move my arms, I couldn’t move my legs and Kerri was there in a second."

"I remember saying to her “I think I’m paralysed. I can’t move” and soon after that I fainted."

John had broken his neck and severely damaged his spinal cord. He was placed into an induced coma and air-lifted to Sydney for emergency surgery to fuse his spine.

When he came out of his coma the prognosis was still uncertain.

"I remember thinking “oh I am alive” you know so that was a positive." John said.

"The first thing I saw was Kerri-Anne, so that was the first reassurance, but then I realised I had things down my throat to breathe and obviously tubes to be fed."

"Of course you just think “Oh, I am going to get better” and only slowly you start to realise what it’s all about."

Kerri-Anne has been overseeing accessibility upgrades in their Sydney home to accommodate his chair — including an elevator to their bedroom — and is learning the requirements of life as a full-time carer.

"I need to be a physiotherapist, occupational therapist, I have even cooked," she said.

"He’s remarkable. I mean he has been extraordinary pretty well all the way through."

"Miracles do happen…stuff does happen."

In lieu of miracles, John and Kerri-Anne believe a medical breakthrough is just around the corner and they are hoping for an opportunity to take part.

Dr Bryce Vissel is working with scientists in the US to further develop cutting edge research into spinal cord stimulation and to bring it to Australia.

"We have got a lot to learn but indications are that many, many people with spinal cord injury will have the possibility to restore movement in a way that was never before believed in human history."

The stimulation is an electrical signal reigniting the communication between the brain and the spinal cord and is being tested on quadriplegics like John.

"Some movement, any movement for a quadriplegic, paraplegic is amazingly exciting…any movement."

Find out more about the spinal stimulation therapy project here