MICHAEL Taylor was 34 years old, a self-employed electrician not long married and awaiting the birth of his first child, when a crash left him without the use of his legs.

Mr Taylor was on his motorbike and only about four kilometres from his home when the incident occurred 13 years ago.

He doesn’t remember the crash – it is believed he might have been clipped by a vehicle - but he remembers lying on the road before being airlifted to the Alfred hospital in Melbourne, then waking up after surgery, his wife by his side, and being told by a doctor that he would never walk again.

What followed were four months in the Austin hospital and the Royal Talbot Rehabilitation Unit, where Mr Taylor learnt how to live in a body that had undergone a massive change.

“You don’t realise what you’ve got to learn,” he said.

“The things I used to take for granted… ‘I’ll just have a quick shower’ - no such thing as a quick shower.”

It was while he was at the Royal Talbot that his daughter was born, so his wife Tina and their new baby moved in with him into one of the living units, which are designed to transition patients back to living independently.

While having a child at an already tumultuous time might sound like a lot to take on, Mr Taylor believes it was a blessing.

“I think having Bailey, having a child, at that time was also a good time, because it took the pressure off being in the chair,” he said.

“I really do believe it helped me, because you had something better to focus on.”

Mr Taylor also considers himself lucky to have quickly come to terms with his injury.

“I can’t change it, so I’ve got to just accept it and move on with it, and most people now just accept who I am and what I do and how I do things,” he said.

While he was undergoing rehabilitation Mr Taylor was introduced to cycling using a handcycle and since then has qualified for two Paralympics, represented Australia in world championships and competed in several countries.

With his injury taking away his ability to work as an electrician, Mr Taylor has taken on primary responsibility for domestic duties and believes the “fantastic” relationship he now has with Bailey would not have been the same if he had been working.

But he says that while he’s made the most of his situation, he would not want anyone to experience what he has.

“The last thing I would want is for anyone to end up in a chair, or worse… It’s not a horrible life, but it’s not a life that you want,” he said.

“Certainly if someone said to me, ‘You can get up and walk’, I’d take it any day of the week.”