Kim turns the tables to take on London Marathon

The Leeds Medical School graduate and Sheffield-born Kim has Poland Syndrome, a rare condition which caused him to be born without chest wall muscles on his right side and no fingers on his right hand.

Aged just two, surgeons performed a double toe transplant taking the second toe from each foot and attaching them to Kim’s right hand to give him opposable digits.

His disability has never stopped Kim pursuing a hugely successful sporting and medical career and he is combining both loves on April 26 to run the London Marathon for Spinal Research.

“Because I had the surgery at such a young age I didn’t really see my disability as a barrier,” he said. “I played a lot of racquet sports as a child and found I just had a knack for table tennis. From the age of 10 I was playing for the national team and when I was 16 transferred to the Team GB Paralympic Team.”

During a glittering 15-year sporting career Kim won nearly 50 international medals, including individual silver in the Commonwealth Games and TeamGB Silver in the European Championships, and competed in two Paralympic Games in London and Rio.

This was achieved while training to become a doctor at Leeds Medical School. But just a year after graduating, the Covid pandemic struck and Kim decided to end his sporting ambitions to work full-time as a resident doctor in London. He was fifth in the world in his class at the time and preparing for his third Paralympics.

“I had a really great sporting career and loved every minute of it but it was the right decision to make,” said the 33-year-old sports and exercise science registrar at Charing Cross Hospital.

“I’ve a lot of friends through sport who have spinal cord injuries. I’ve trained, competed, laughed, and commiserated with incredible athletes whose resilience has never ceased to inspire me.

“As both an athlete and a doctor, I’ve witnessed the extraordinary journey from devastating injury to Paralympic triumph. It is a path filled with challenges and setbacks, but it always begins with one essential ingredient: high-quality medical care.

“I know the importance of the new technologies, treatments and therapies that are coming through which can and will make such a huge difference to the quality of peoples’ lives.”

Every two hours someone in the UK is paralysed after a spinal cord injury – it can happen to anyone at any time with devastating consequences for them and their loved ones.

Spinal Research is the leading UK charity funding and supporting the best research around the world to develop life-changing new treatments for those paralysed after a spinal cord injury.

Suzanne Redding, the charity’s Head of Audience and Community, said: “With the first function restoring treatment in history now available and more breakthrough therapies coming, what we need is the funds to get these to the 105,000-plus people living every day in the UK with a devastating spinal cord injury.

"So, we are incredibly grateful to Kim for joining this year’s London Marathon #TeamSpinal. Every single pound takes us a step closer to our goal of curing paralysis”.

Kim will also be running in memory of his friend, mentor and coach Gorazd Vecko, performance manager of British Para Table Tennis 2007-2025. To support Kim, go to his JustGiving page: https://www.justgiving.com/page/kim-daybell-2