'I AM STILL BASE JUMPING'
'Still skiing and paragliding. Still rockclimbing...'
It’s hard to believe that 79-years-young extreme sports expert Eric Jones has ever had a day’s illness in his life, yet this inspirational gentleman was literally brought to his knees by pain following the effects of a motorcycle accident some years ago.
One can only speculate on the mental as well as physical suffering such debilitation had on the man who started his extreme sports career in 1961 and was still in demand from filmmakers for his physical skills. Eric has now appeared in more than 40 movies; he worked with Bond star Sean Connery, the legendary director Fred Zinnemann and performed many extreme action sequences in films and documentaries including Dead Men’s Tales directed by Leo Dickinson.
‘I was getting around a few weeks after the knee replacement. I was a bit skeptical when I was told that all would be great after a year. In fact that was absolutely correct – 12 months after the operation I was totally right. It now feels brilliant – completely natural. After all these years of suffering I have no knee pain any more. I tell people the knee’s perfect, it’s the rest of me that’s falling apart!’ laughed the irrepressible Mr Jones.
‘By 2010 I just couldn’t get about - the pain was too much, especially the inside of my knee.’
In 2010 Mr Jones saw Mr. Koldo Azurza FRCS, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon from Bangor, who carried out a TKR (Total Knee Replacement) using a Medial Pivot Total Knee Replacement.
In fact Mr Jones is very far from ‘falling apart’. Since his operation, he’s continued to chase adventure with the same passion. Aged 75, he performed another death-defying BASE jump in West Virginia USA. His passion for climbing has since seen him conquer the 1267ft Devils Tower in Wyoming, and in 2015 he ventured out to Patagonia where he filmed a climbing documentary for Channel 4 Wales. He’s also released a biography, A Life on the Edge, charting his daredevil exploits. He has also filmed 'The Last Climb', worth watching.
And the next adventure? ‘I’m going to spend a month or two skiing in the alps,’ he said excitedly. There is no stopping Mr Jones, thanks to his fearless enthusiasm– and thanks to the MRK-Matt Ortho Implant and surgeon Mr Azurza, of course!