Kai left school at 16 to become a mechanic however lost the functional use of his left arm in 2015 after a motorbike crash meaning he had no choice but to change career paths. After, rather ironically coming to grips with his newfound disability, Kai decided to return to education to study social sciences at Burton college in 2017. He originally wanted to study music as he was releasing some singles that gained some traction on BBC introducing at the time, but the college only offered humanities and social science so he decided to study the social sciences as he was interested in people.

Although not very academically smart at school, he graduated Burton college at the top of his class and got an offer to study psychology at Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU). However, just prior to arriving at MMU for his first year in 2018, kai started collapsing at random, and within two weeks of getting to university he got a call from a spinal consultant that informed kai that he would need an urgent spinal operation as otherwise he would risk neck down paralysation.

Without any real alternative options, he left university and went in for the experimental operation. He awoke temporarily paralysed from the neck down (lasting a few days) however the real damage was too his legs which experienced complete neurological loss.

Over the next 6 months, Kai dedicated his life to neurorehabilitation and fought hard to get out of the wheelchair that the surgery put him in. He got out of the wheelchair, got back to university and completed his first year while doing spoken work gigs and musical performances all around Manchester and realising multiple singles.

However Kai’s journey through pain and disability only just began, as he started experiencing severe chronic pain that got exponentially worse throughout his first year that meant he was in bed in debilitating pain for up to 3 days a week. The spinal consultants suggested the pain was a result of scar tissue build up in his spinal cord that caused a strangulation type effect thus inducing the bilateral stabbing/shooting pain he felt in both his arms. The surgeons suggested another spinal operation that he went in for on the 23rd December 2020 (just before Christmas and during the Covid-19 lockdown). He unfortunately awoke with no use of his legs yet again and in more pain than ever. The Doctors suggested another spinal operation and although kai was reluctant, he felt he had no other options and went in for his 3rd spinal operation in March 2021. He woke up from this operation with even worse neurological loss to his legs and in more pain than ever…

Now, Kai was offered a 4th spinal operation but at this point he felt that the biomedical world has failed him and decided to take matters into his own hands (or rather hand).

He returned to university unable to walk and using a mobility scooter, and whilst completing his second year of university and doing intensive neurorehabilitation, started studying pain science. One day he was reading a book called ‘Explain Pain’ by Lorimer Mosley and David Butler and he had a eureka moment. This book, for the first time was informing kai about how pain was not just a biological process, but a psychological and sociological one (i.e., biopsychosocial). However, every surgeon, every physio, every consultant and every nurse had only ever tried treating Kai’s pain biologically (medications and surgery).

Kai, who was at the time taking high volumes of a multitude of medications, started implementing psychosocial pain interventions into his life (regulating sleep, eating well, practicing mindfulness, regular exercise etc.) and within two weeks of reading Explain Pain and implanting the new psychosocial interventions was completely medication free.

Since coming off of medication he was able to think more clearly and completed his 3rd year of university with a first class degree in psychology, receiving an 85 in his dissertation studying personality and pain and being awarded the outstanding community contribution award. Since leaving university in 2023 he has gone on to work as a public speaker for a public health campaign called ‘Flippin Pain’ where he educates people in pain and health care professional about the psychosocial influences of pain, as well as currently completing his MSc in health psychology to one day be a pain psychologist. Kai is also still making music and doing spoken work performances as well as going to the gym 3 to 5 days a week and doing yoga every morning while documenting his journey through life on his social media (@guidedbykai). Kai is currently in the process of starting a Podcast called ‘The Guided By Series’ where he aims to get guests on who have led great but complex lives with the end goal to ‘create simple guides for complex lives’.