Miracle walker

Born with spina bifida, by the age of 34 Mark Chenoweth was resigned to spending the rest of his life in a wheelchair. Doctors told him he would never walk again.

Then, on holiday in Menorca in 1998, against the advice of his doctor, he persuaded a dive center to let him go scuba diving for the first time. He plunged to a depth of 55 ft (17 m) - and when he emerged from the water he found that he could walk again. "It was just unbelievable," Mark.

"I came out and I could feel my legs like I had never felt them before. They were actually working. The instructor could't believe it. He'd seen me arrive in my wheelchair, and now I didn't need it." Three days later his legs became lifeless again, but back home in Staffordshire, England, he quickly booked his next diving holiday. Since then he has found that he deeper he dives, the longer he can walk afterward. As a result he now need his wheelchair only twice a year.

According to Ripley's research, The deeper divers go, the richer the mix of oxygen that they take in from their aqualungs, and one theory is that this extra oxygen is affecting the nerve cells damaged by Mark's spina bifida and is making them temporarily work.