The real life Ironman: Told he would never walk again after an avalanche broke his back, Paul, 32, is set to scale the mountain that broke him... but first he'll complete a full triathlon Paul Stewart swept off a cliff by avalanche while skiing with friends in 2008 Spinal cord so badly damaged doctors said he would never regain mobility Paul, from London, defied doctors by painstakingly rehabilitating his muscles Now walks using carbon fibre splints and sticks Is taking on full Ironman triathlon: 2.4mile swim, 112mile cycle, 26.2mile walk Feat will end with Paul scaling the 200ft cliff face he fell down Hopes to raise £400,000 for charity - total so far at £367,000 Five years ago during a ski trip to La Plagne, France, Paul Stewart's back was broken in an avalanche that hurled him off a 200ft cliff. The sheer force of the slab of snow as it threw Paul down the mountain at 100mph damaged his spinal cord so severely that he was left paralysed from the waist down. Paul, a trained snowboard instructor who had been skiing on an easily accessible, tracked-out off-piste area between ski lifts, was told by French doctors he would never walk again. After he was flown home to the UK doctors there repeated the devastating diagnosis: his lower spine was so badly damaged he would never again be able to walk. Paul says now he was fortunate - he believes the damage could have been worse. Paul, 31, says he was defined by his sporting prowess before he broke his back in an avalanche in 2008 Paul, a trained snowboard instructor, on the slopes before the avalanche that damaged is spinal cord, causing a complete injury that led doctors to say he would never walk again 'I was lucky that I landed on top of the snow when it stopped,' he says. 'I didn't need to be dug out. But I knew immediately there was something seriously wrong. I couldn't move my toes and I couldn't feel anything below my lower back.' Rushed to hospital by helicopter - he believes the speed with which he received medical care spared him from losing even more sensation - he spent months in a hospital bed and even longer in a wheelchair. In that time, Paul, an athletic type who previously ran an events company and a sports fan networking company, became determined he would not allow his strength to ebb away. In a show of the sort of courage that makes him the man his friends and family admire, he vowed to fight back. And now, in a show of extraordinary strength, Paul is to climb back up the mountain that broke him. But not before first completing a full Ironman triathlon. Paul appeared on Daybreak on Friday to discuss the challenge - which has already seen him swim 2.4 miles and complete the first half of a 112 mile cycle ride. Paul with his girlfriend Katie, right, and the mayor of Henley at a fundraising event for the Challenge Paul carried the torch ahead of the Olympics last year - and managed to walk with just one stick Appearing on the show with family friend Jeremy Kyle, Paul spoke of the mental force that has enabled him to defy doctors across the globe. 'Originally you don't believe it. You hear those words, "you'll never walk,"' he says. At first you just refuse to accept it. But then, and I'm not going to be brave here, the tears came. Every hospital I went to gave me the same results. But I refused to accept it. Every bone in my body believed I'd walk' Then I gave myself a day or two and I decided I need to be an athlete again. Get in the gym. Paul admits that until that moment, his physical ability had been an intrinsic part of his identity. 'Sport defined me,' he says. 'I wasn't brainy in that way. It was what made me a man. And that was taken away from me. Doctors classed the damage as a complete injury - meaning they believed he had no chance of rehabilitation. 'Every hospital I went to gave me the same results,' he says. Paul on a practice climb in the French Alps Paul in the adapted trike he is using to pedal 112 miles as part of his IronSpine challenge. At times when the going is tough on steep inclines he has to push his legs around using his arms Every bone in my body believed I'd walk. I listened to the good bits and ignored the bad bits. I worked tirelessly. I made other patients the opponents. I thought, if you can do this I can do it better.  Slowly but surely Paul did indeed make progress. He spent months in rehabilitation at Stoke Mandeville hospital in Buckinghamshire - the leading NHS centre for spinal injuries - as well as undergoing treatment at the Royal Buckinghamshire and in a specialist clinic in Miami. He learned that while he had no sensation below the knees, he was able to send messages from his brain to his quadriceps. This meant he could develop and strengthen the muscles - something that would allow him to rise out of his wheelchair and walk with the aid of splints and crutches, and later on, walking sticks. To date he is unable send those same neural messages to his gluteal muscles - the ones that are so crucial to independent movement, stability and balance - which means walking does not come easy. After months of rehabilitation and physio work, despite still having no feeling below the knees, Paul can now walk with the help of L-shaped carbon fibre braces that fit onto his lower legs and act as supports for his feet. Holding himself upright on walking sticks, he manages to walk long distances in the distinctive gait he himself refers to as the 'penguin'. With the rigid carbon fibre splints attached to his legs and his arms gripping the sticks, he is able to lift each foot using a combination of thigh and upper body strength and put one foot down in front of the other. His attitude to physical strength and capacity is staggering. Indeed, in the few years since his accident, Paul trained in wheelchair tennis and competed in the 2012 British championships. He taught himself to swim to such a high level that he qualified for the 2012 Paralympic team. But by the time the Paralympics came around, thanks to the endless hours he put into strengthening his muscles, his mobility had improved, putting him in the disability category above - meaning he was suddenly competing with people with much more minor disabilities and much faster times. Paul did not have time to get up to speed in time for the Games. But he did not let that stop him. Later that year, at the end of 2012, he travelled to Whistler for his first ski trip since the accident. Paul on his IronSpine Facebook page: 'I get strange looks as people don't understand why I go so slow,' he says. I am basically only cycling with my thigh muscles The first time Paul managed to walk a mile. Then he used crutches - but he managed to improve his strength to the point where he could walk using only sticks After a few lessons, he was hurling himself down the mountain with such speed and prowess that the Canadian Olympic ski team asked him if he would stay on to compete in the Winter Games. But with the IronSpine challenge to train for, his girlfriend Katie, 31, said she had to put her foot down and encourage him to come home. The gruelling Ironman-style feat of endurance will see him undertake the three disciplines involved in the traditional Ironman contest - but will culminate with him scaling the very mountain where he broke his back in 2008. The challenge kicked off earlier this week with the 2.4 mile swim at Stoke Mandeville - that is 155 lengths of the 25 metre pool - using only his arms to propel him along, his legs like a dead weight behind him. He completed it in an incredible one hour 20 minutes. Next, Paul embarked upon a 112 mile bike ride using a trike. This evening saw him come to the end of the first 64 miles. On his Facebook page where he is posting updates along the way, he remarked that some of the hills he has climbed have been so steep he has had to push his legs around using his hands. After that will come a 26.2 mile walk that will take him to 10 Downing Street. Trying out for the Paralympics last year. Paul narrowly missed out on a place in the 2012 Paralympics after his physical improvement meant he went up a disability grade, pitting him against competitors with more minor disabilities and faster qualifying times Finally, Paul will fly to France (by plane, he is still only human, after all) where he will travel to Bel Plagne to confront the place where he says he 'lost' before. This time he intends to win. Using his sticks, he will walk the arduous route up the 200ft mountain, resting only when he reaches the spot where the avalanche claimed its scalp. Bear in mind that at this point that Paul has never yet attempted a mountain ascent and you get an idea of his mentality. In fact, until last August, Paul had never walked more than a mile, cycled more than 10 miles, or swum such a distance. The IronSpine challenge will see Paul raise money for two charities, Spinal Research and Wings For Life, two organisations that focus on finding a cure for spinal cord injuries. He has already raised over £327,000 towards his £400,000 target. He knows, he says, that any developments that come from the money he raises may never be of any use to him. He accepted long ago he may never recover feeling in his lower body. But Paul hopes the money he raises could help someone else, someone younger who might suffer a similar fate. Paul competing in the British Wheelchair Tennis Championships last year Paul's right-hand-woman and companion on the challenge is his girlfriend Katie Houlbrook, whom he calls his 'rock', and credits with making sure he is set up to win each day. Katie and Paul had been in a relationship when the two studied at Loughborough university together but had since parted ways. Katie was living in Los Angeles and working at a modelling agency when she found out about Paul's accident via a Facebook photo that showed him sitting in a wheelchair. Through hard work, tenacity and stubbornness he is about to undertake a challenge that should be medically impossible 'I burst into tears when I saw it,' she says. As soon as I heard I had to see him. I flew to London and met him for lunch. He was sitting down when I arrived and didn't tell me how serious the accident had really been, or even that he couldn't walk. But he was the same as he ever was. Nothing had changed. If anything, he's an even more impressive person now. Calmer, more focused. Katie, who works for her father's company Supercrease, was the one who convinced him to get on a bike, when he came to visit her in Santa Monica where she had an apartment. 'He said he couldn't ride a bike - but I knew he could,' she says. We got him a sit-down trike and we rode for miles along the sea front. He hadn't been able to take himself on such a long distance using his own power since the accident. He found it incredibly liberating and never looked back. Paul was always determined he would never stay in his wheelchair. 'I believed with every bone in my body that I would walk again,' he says The two now share a special bond. Katie, who is a keen runner and completed the 2012 London Marathon, has been in training for months so that she can accompany Paul on a number of the legs of his journey. 'I need to train just to keep up with him,' she says. Paul's physiotherapist Jayne Wedge, a specialist in neuro-rehabilitation, said it it is thanks to Paul's sheer determination he has come so far. 'By all rights he should not be able to walk at all,' she says. But since the accident he has committed himself to defying the prognosis. Through hard work, tenacity and stubbornness he is about to undertake a challenge that should be medically impossible. 'I always believed I'd walk,' Paul says. People told me I would never be a functional walker. I started to believe it. I could get somewhere in a wheelchair in two minutes - but it took me half an hour walking. I thought, "I have to keep at it, I have to get stronger." Now I can do that journey in two minutes on foot. But there is one element of the challenge that is troubling the seemingly fearless Paul: the climb. 'I had a practice climb in the Alps but couldn't go to the area where the accident happened because there was too much snow,' he said. 'I had a sudden rush of relief when I realised I couldn't go up there. I'm scared of losing to the mountain again. I lost last time. I don't want to lose again.' Visit Ironspinechallenge.com for more information. Join Paul's support group at Facebook.com/IronSpineChallenge. To donate, visit Paul's Just Giving page here.