Jaco Van Gass

After sustaining serious injuries whilst serving in Afghanistan, Jaco Van Gass was forced to leave behind the military career he had worked so hard to build. What followed was a lengthy period of rehabilitation and a growing passion for cycling. More than a decade later, Jaco continues to work with Dorset Orthopaedic to develop prosthetic solutions that support his ambitions on and off the bike.

At 19, Jaco left South Africa and travelled to the UK to pursue a career in the British Army. He went on to complete training with the Parachute Regiment before joining 1 PARA (Special Forces Support Group), being deployed to Afghanistan on multiple occasions.

Jaco described this period of his life as one he thoroughly enjoyed. The Army provided a sense of direction and a role he was proud of. "I was a soldier,” Jaco said. “That's what I identified as, and that's what everyone knew me as."

During one operational tour in Afghanistan, Jaco's unit was nearing the end of its deployment when they were redirected to an alternative extraction point. As they moved towards the new location, they became involved in a major firefight. Around 40 minutes into the engagement, Jaco was struck by an RPG. He lost his left arm above the elbow and sustained several other serious injuries.

After being evacuated, Jaco spent a week in an induced coma. Although he remembered losing his arm during the firefight, it was only when he woke up in Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital he realised the extent of the other injuries he had sustained. While his physical recovery would be extensive, coming to terms with the end of his military career presented a different challenge entirely. “I knew my military career was over, but I didn’t want to believe it,” Jaco recalled. “I really struggled with this internal battle between wanting to go back and accepting that I couldn’t.”

During the early stages of rehabilitation, and despite the severity of his injuries, Jaco continued to think about rejoining his unit and resuming his career in the military. However, as the weeks passed, he slowly came to the conclusion that his focus needed to shift from returning to the army to rebuilding his life beyond it. Reflecting on this shift in mindset, Jaco said: "Once I made peace with the fact that I wasn't going back to the military, everything changed." Accepting the situation allowed him to move forward both mentally and physically, describing it as, “a point where my body and my mind were finally on the same page. It felt as though someone had pressed the fast-forward button on my recovery."

Rather than trying to predict where he might be months down the line, Jaco focused on the immediate challenges that were directly in front of him. Thinking too far ahead felt overwhelming, so rehabilitation became about achieving the next milestone and then moving on to the one after that. His progress first started with getting out of bed and into a wheelchair, before progressing to a walking frame, a walking stick and eventually walking independently. "Getting from a hospital bed into a wheelchair was my first goal. For me, that was progress,” Jaco said.

Jaco’s rehabilitation was not always straightforward. Shortly after arriving at Headley Court, the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre, where he would begin the next stage of his recovery, Jaco developed an infection and was transferred back to hospital. Although he initially viewed this as a setback, it subsequently led to doctors identifying an ankle fracture that had previously gone unnoticed. Following surgery, the pain in his ankle reduced significantly and allowed him to continue progressing with his rehabilitation. Reflecting on that period, Jaco said: "I learnt very quickly that small goals worked better than big promises."

During his recovery, Jaco attended the London 2012 Paralympic Games. Watching athletes compete at the highest level gave him a different perspective on disability sport and introduced him to opportunities he had not previously considered. "The Paralympics completely changed my perception of disability and showed me what was possible,” said Jaco.

Inspired by what he had seen, Jaco felt encouraged to look at his own sporting ambitions differently. Having already returned to cycling during his recovery, he began training more regularly and developing ambitions within the sport. As those ambitions grew, he recognised the need for a prosthetic solution that could better support his riding. Around 2013, he began working with Dorset Orthopaedic to develop a cycling-specific prosthesis tailored to his needs.

More than a decade later, Jaco still works with Dorset Orthopaedic to refine the prosthetic solutions he uses on the bike. What began as a prosthesis designed to help him return to cycling has been continually adapted to support new riding positions, different disciplines and changing goals. "As my cycling evolved, my prosthetics evolved with me,” said Jaco.

Looking back on his recovery, Jaco believes that much of his progress came from focusing on the next milestone rather than the final outcome. During rehabilitation, that meant concentrating on small improvements and building on them over time. More than a decade later, it remains one of the most important lessons he took from the experience. When asked what advice he would give to somebody facing a similar situation, Jaco's answer was simple: "Be patient. The small things matter, and consistency beats everything."