Marti Powell

A large degree of determination

At 21, Marti Powell had the world at his feet. Having left school at 16 to pursue a career in computing, he had dreams of becoming a millionaire by the time he was 30. He'd saved for and purchased his dream car, had a busy and active social life and a promising career he was passionate about. And then everything changed.

On his way home following an evening out with friends, Marti was knocked down by a van. The impact left him in a coma for one month and he remained in hospital for seven months.

Marti's whole life had changed in an instant. He was unable to speak or move and required full assistance for everything. Suddenly, this ambitious, independent, energetic young man needed full-time care to complete the most basic of tasks.

By the time Marti was discharged from the Osborn 4 rehabilitation unit at the Northern General Hospital, he had become more physically independent. However, he was still left with a number of problems, including memory and concentration difficulties, impaired vision and an inability to initiate activity. For the past seven years, Marti has been attending Headway North Derbyshire to aid his recovery.

Despite the challenges he faced, Marti was determined to focus on an academic career and set himself high targets, perceived by most to be unrealistic and unattainable. But Marti was undeterred; if he failed at a particular task, he would simply persevere until he succeeded.

Marti had to restart his education at a basic level. Having retained his love of computers, he began with a basic computer literacy course at Chesterfield College.

With support from understanding and accommodating tutors, Marti began to progress and moved onto more advanced courses, completing HNC and HND qualifications in computing.

The courses were broken down into smaller sections to help him, with his tutor periodically checking that they were completed appropriately. His poor memory was a huge challenge and his tutor had to go over the information regularly. Learning new programming methods, different to those used prior to his injury, was a challenge that took hard work and lots of repetition.

Again though, Marti was determined to succeed. In 2007, he began an undergraduate degree course in Applied Computing and against all the odds, in November 2009, he graduated with a BSc. Not content with stopping there, he is now studying for a further degree in order to specialise in his preferred field.

Marti has a unique way of looking at his achievements. "Having a challenge is like eating an elephant," he said. "You can't do it all at once, but if you cut it into bite-sized pieces you make it more manageable."

It has taken huge amounts of courage and determination, not to mention love and support from his family and friends, for Marti to achieve his goals. Marti hopes his success will encourage others to do the same.