Darren Thomas is an inspiration to all South Africans. A shooting during a house robbery, left him paralysed. Yet, this father of two, company director and fitness junkie, believes there are no excuses to live life to the fullest.
Darren Thomas is working towards doing 500 pull-ups in a day — with a 15Kg weight strapped to his body. When he isn’t in the gym, Darren spends his days running a national security company. He is also a father to two kids, aged 6 and 8.
Transaction Control Technologies is a security company that sets up different security systems in homes and commercial stores.
“Security systems are working against [intruders], when you can’t,” explains Darren. “It’s the only thing that fights for you when you can’t.”
“This year, I am 40… Now you are supposed to say, ‘nah you don’t look 40’,” says Darren Thomas. PHOTO: Alistair Seymour
Crossing the threshold
On the night of 23 October 2007, Darren was sleeping in his bed in Johannesburg. He had just bought a puppy for his then girlfriend and now wife, Lauren.
Darren woke up to the pup barking in his room.
“I thought I could hear them, but then I assumed the puppy was being paranoid and then went back to bed,” he said.
This would be the last thing Darren would remember until much later that night. Seven armed robbers broke into his house, three of which managed to get into Darren’s bedroom. A fight between the intruders and Darren broke out.
“One guy stabbed me in the head with a screwdriver, and the other guy shot me point blank in the chest,” he said.
Exercise is at the core of Darren Thomas’ daily routine. He often works out for 2 to 3 hours a day. PHOTO: Alistair Seymour
The next thing Darren remembers is becoming conscious and speaking to his father. His father thought that his son had just been shot in the head due to the amount of blood coming from the stab wound. He was immediately rushed to ICU where he would stay for 4 days.
“I’m alive, which is the first miracle. My whole thing is, what went wrong? What happened? or why didn’t it happen? I just want to know why I didn’t win. I tried everything to remember. I really tried to remember. I even went to a hypnotherapist,” recalls Darren.
The gun was fired as Darren’s pounding heart contracted. The bullet missed his heart by a millimetre before his heart released again. Darren’s fighting-off of the intruders was what saved his life.
“Then it hit my spine and the bone fragments went into the spinal cord, and that was the damage,” explains Darren.
Darren Thomas named his son after his best friend, Bevan, who passed away in a helicopter crash shortly after Darren proposed to his wife, Lauren. “I knew him from standard 5, so he was like a big brother. He taught me a lot,” says Darren. PHOTO: Alistair Seymour
The ordinary world
Darren was left paralysed from the chest down at 27. He had, incidentally, just moved back to his parents’ house three months prior to the accident, and it made sense for him to stay there after coming out of rehab.
“But you are here. You are still breathing. You are still alive. There are people that are worse off and I think that was a change in mind to say, ‘let’s try, carry on and do that’”
Darren was always a fit person. He played sevens rugby for the Lions, competed at the kickboxing championships for South Africa, and was an avid motorcycle rider.
While he was now paralysed, his “personality didn’t go anywhere”, says Darren.
“Who I was, didn’t go anywhere. But you lost who you were and what you could do,” recalls Darren. “You had to try and regain your identity.”
“Now, who am I? Who am I? I’m not that, I can’t be that,” he says, referring to his lifestyle prior to the accident. “And that was the tough part to try and deal with.”
For Darren, an important thing during the process of recovery, was his relationship with God. “If I was without faith, I don’t know if I would have made it. I wouldn’t have made it,” he says. PHOTO: Alistair Seymour
Approaching the innermost cave
He spent three months in a rehabilitation centre, where he had to relearn how to do basic tasks such as sitting up. This would become his new normal. Darren said he continued to believe, one way or another, that he would walk again. Growing up in a religious family, his faith is what pulled him through the toughest of times.
He recalls looking at his parents and his wife and thinking: “They are suffering because they have to do stuff for me.”
“I was sick of watching [Lauren] struggling, and taking the wheelchair out the boot. I was sick of always asking people for stuff. So, on one hand, I didn’t want to deal with it,” said Darren.
Darren Thomas is currently working towards doing 500 pull-ups in a day. PHOTO: Alistair Seymour
“The rehab is hardcore,” recalls Darren Thomas. “It’s a place of healing, but also a place of hurt. I would listen to motivational stuff, preachers and whatever, on my earphones. I did it so that I didn’t have to listen to people crying.” PHOTO: Alistair Seymour
The psychological battle to recover from such an event required just as much strength for Darren as his physical one. The first distinct psychological shift was to recognise the potential that his life has, particularly at his darkest of times.
“I don’t claim to have heard a voice talk to me or anything. But thoughts came to mind… ‘You still have something to live for’,” Darren says, referring to times when he felt like he didn’t want to go on.
“Yes, it sucks. You have without a doubt been dealt a serious thing here. But you are here,” says Darren. “You are still breathing. You are still alive. There are people that are worse off and I think that was a change in mind. To say: ‘Let’s try carry on and do that.’ ”
Angels in South Africa
Lauren Thomas and Darren had been dating for two years when the house was attacked. She
had just graduated with a law degree, passed the board exam and was busy doing her articles. Yet, she decided to put her job on hold to assist Darren’s parents in supporting him through the early stages of his recovery.
“She’s like an angel on earth that came and was there for me all the time. I was lying in bed where I couldn’t move my legs,” Darren says as he recalls Lauren’s commitment to him.
Darren Thomas still experiences tough days. He is honest about this on social media, making a point to post when he is having a bad day, and to give an honest representation of his life. PHOTO: Alistair Seymour
Darren said he waited three years before proposing to Lauren. He wanted to be able to walk down the aisle, and drive his own car before he got married.
“We are always chasing a dream and chasing money. I wanted to be this and that and you forget to stop and just think. To look at what you have around you… look at the value you have in the people around you.”
He decided he wanted to start making his life better in the “now”. He wanted to keep hoping for a better future, yet enjoy his life in the moment. He reluctantly replaced his car for one that allowed him to drive. This was a hard decision because Darren, being a car enthusiast, had to let go of a car that he really loved.
“I started driving, and the independence was great. I should have done it on day one… that’s how I felt,” he says.
Once he had replaced his car with a more practical one, he moved out of his parents’ house with Lauren and proposed to her.
Today, they are married, and have two children.
“Making those decisions were really big decisions to make. But that just launched me into saying, ‘now you can live life’.”
“We are always chasing a dream and chasing money, I wanted to be this and that and you forget to stop and just think. To look at what you have around you, look at the value you have in the people around you.”
The reward
Darren discovered the power in sharing his story with others. He loves the feedback and experiences it as fuel to keep going. He is motivated to be a good example to his kids, so that they can see that there aren’t excuses for anything in life.
“Competition drives me, and CrossFit has been the first time there was competition for me again,” explains Darren Thomas. PHOTO: Alistair Seymour
“It’s amazing to see how empathetic they are to others who go through stuff,” he says about his children. “And they don’t give up. They don’t. And that’s important to me. So, I feel like that’s my role as a dad: To be able to show them that.”
Exercising and fitness became central to Darren’s daily routine, as he constantly tries to better himself and reach the next physical milestone.
“If I can help one person a day or a week, then I’m doing something with this. I want to be able to use it for the benefit of others. Regardless of your circumstances, there is so much you can achieve and there is so much you are capable of.”
Darren said he had two choices: To mope around, be depressed and lazy, or to really make a difference and give it his all, whilst keeping a sense of humour about life.
“I know that it’s difficult, and that you struggle with things,” he says, “but everyone has got their own problems. Everyone has got their own mountains to climb, and cross to bear.”
Darren recently competed in the 2021 Adaptive CrossFit open and finished in the top 15 in the world in the adaptive category. He aims to keep working to see how he can improve to place even higher during the next CrossFit open.
“I’ve been given a second chance to make a difference. I can continue with life and I really want to share my story because I believe that there is benefit for others in it. Whether you are in a chair or whether you are fully able and there is nothing wrong with you,” says Darren Thomas. PHOTO: Alistair Seymour