Suddenly I'm aware that Clarence Adoo isn't quite concentrating on our conversation. He's getting to grips with a snack. 'Sorry about this,' he apologises. 'I must eat something before I dash off to work.'

It's a reminder, if one were needed, that Clarence has dedicated the ten years since a car accident left him paralysed from the neck down, to carrying on as normal a life as is possible. Mystery still surrounds the moment when his vehicle went out of control, but there's no mystery about the sheer guts and determination which have seen him rise above overwhelming odds to live an extraordinarily full and active life.

Flying High

'Clarence is one of those people who make you feel better just by being in a room with him,' says Libby Purves, who interviewed him on her Radio 4 Midweek programme just before Christmas. 'He's living proof that music can give a person something on every level - physical, spiritual, mental - which enables them to fly above the worst trials of life. It was a privilege to meet him.'

Clarence still has vivid memories of the hospital where he lay after the accident. A lifetime love of brass-playing which went back to his Sally Army debut at the age of 6, and led to his appointment as 2nd trumpet with the Northern Sinfonia and regular work with the Bournemouth Sinfonietta, had been cut short in the most brutal, sudden way. 'On my ward there were people similarly disabled who felt it was the end of their lives. But I was fortunate Ð the musical community was immensely supportive right from the start. The Northern Sinfonia were Ð and remain Ð simply amazing. The first thing they did when I was fit enough, was to make me orchestral manager, which involved huge amounts of fixing. Fixing's demanding, particularly when you get a request like "I want a second flute and I want one now!", or when the phone would ring at midnight with the news that a violinist had gone sick and couldn't do the next day's concert.'

Always keen to meet new challenges, Clarence is now the Northern Sinfonia's orchestral animateur. He's involved in all kinds of education work with children and adults. It's a job that demands mounds of research and preparation and plenty of travel.

A great communicator

Clarence's job at The Sage Gateshead involves him not just with the Northern Sinfonia, the resident orchestra, but in other responsibilities as well. One day he might be talking to A Level students about Stravinsky, the next coaching brass players or an amateur orchestra. He's even dabbled with conducting. Yes. A chamber orchestra. With his head. 'But in a sense the disability worked in my favour. I was able to get across how much the players had to listen to each other.'

'Clarence is simply a great communicator,' says his colleague Fiona Lockwood, The Sage Gateshead's Projects Co-ordinator. 'People often think classical music is a dry subject, but it's never that with Clarence. It doesn't matter whom he's talking to, of whatever age - he's always engaging and interesting. As a coach of musical groups he's also extremely perceptive and puts players at their ease. The members of the Northern Sinfonia hugely admire what he's been able to achieve.'

And, as I quickly learnt, communication, which is essential in his work as Northern Sinfonia's orchestral animateur, is also fundamental to the war that Clarence has been waging on his disability.

Fighting disability

Immediately after the accident, Clarence had only minimal movement in his head as the sum total of his physical capability, although fortunately his trumpeter's diaphragm forestalled the need for artificial help with breathing. Thanks to the work of physiotherapists, he now has normal movement of the head and plenty of strength in his shoulders. 'I can shrug them....and move them backward and forward.'

'for example, in the treatment, at the Bio-feedback Department of Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami where, with the help of funding from the Clarence Adoo Trust, Clarence has been one of many patients taking part in the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, an electrode is attached to a muscle in an arm or leg and then connected to a computer. The computer is able to detect whether my brain is trying to use that muscle. I have to concentrate all my brain energy onto the area in question and try to make the connection, which is then registered by the computer.

What's happening is that the brain is exploring ways of re-routing the message it's trying to send in order to work the muscle. So the technique is all about trying to locate muscle areas with which the brain can still communicate. On one occasion, when a class of students was looking on, the doctor was saying "OK, no luck there, let's move on!" But I insisted on having one last try...and a connection registered!!'

Once a connection has been demonstrated, it's a case of focussing physio and further brainpower on the area in question. The outcome so far is that Clarence can lift an elbow to the level of his shoulder while lying on a bed Ð a massive step forward and a huge boost to his confidence, although he isn't one to get carried away.

So far there have been three trips to Miami so far Ð each costing in the region of £10,000 Ð and there are plans for further visits, all of which will only be possible if donations continue to be made to the Clarence Adoo Trust.

As well as the trips to Miami, Clarence has been visiting a centre in Gloucestershire which offers a treatment developed in Russia. This involves using a device which, in layman's language, delivers a succession of rapid electric shocks to a particular area of skin. If the brain detects the sensation, it raises the skin temperature in that area, a reaction which is detectable. 'So just as in Miami,' Clarence explains, 'it's a means of locating where there may still be pathways. If they're detected, we move around the area in question to see how large it is. So far I've had the excitement of feeling a tingling in my fingers Ð the first sensation I've had there since the accident. And the last time I went to Gloucestershire it was detected that the biceps and triceps in my right arm were connecting.

Clarence also reports a restoration of the sensation of sitting on a surface, and he can also now move his big toes. It's all amazing stuff, and when his doctors see what's been happening, they just say "Keep it up".'

The Clarance Adoo Trust

'Keep it up' could well be the motto of Clarence's faithful band of supporters who over the last decade have raised the money which allows him not just to receive continuing treatment but also funds many of the facilities that enable him to lead as near as possible a normal life. Not a penny was paid out by his insurance company after the accident, on the scarcely credible grounds that although his accident had left him paralysed from the neck down, he hadn't lost a limb.

Of course he receives state support, but this, says Clarence, could never fund much more than a sedentary stay-at-home lifestyle. 'The fact that I have a job puts me in a difficult position. If I want to go out to work I have to fund the extra costs involved.....so working carries a financial penalty!' His specially equipped van, for example, was bought via funds donated to the Clarence Adoo Trust. Each year a very substantial five-figure sum is needed over and above basic living expenses to enable him to embrace a full and active lifestyle, largely spent on the necessary 24-hour-a-day care cover.

Concerts to raise money for Clarence Adoo Trust have been a mainstay over the years Ð the musical world's affectionate tribute to one of its own - and still they keep coming. 'I don't always hear what's happening until quite late Ð maybe someone will ring up and ask for a photo for the programme. In this country there have been concerts from Scotland to the South Coast. There was a concert a few weeks ago in Castleford...a brass band and a choir, raising money for the Trust. Abroad, there's been support from musicians in the USA, Norway, Sweden and Japan.' Rumour has it that a concert this summer will include a performance from Clarence himself. Watch this space.

Then there have been things like sponsored walks. For example, the group of musicians who climbed the three tallest peaks in Britain in 24 hours, playing on the top of each one. A group of ladies in Sunderland raises money playing Scrabble. 'They each pay £1 to play and when the kitty reaches £100 they send me a cheque! I'm so grateful for all of this. I'm totally amazed that after ten years people are still so willing to help. Quite understandably people often in life get involved with something for a while and then move on. But that doesn't seem to be the case with me.'

That's fortunate, because the need to raise funds will extend long into the future as equipment needs to be replaced and new treatments become available.

And of the future?

New boundaries keep being crossed....even into the famous St James's Park, home of legendary Newcastle United. 'Football could never become a religion to me, but it's been tremendous to use the club's disabled facilities and watch teams like Manchester United and Arsenal. On one occasion there was a mistake over the tickets and the situation was resolved by an invitation into the directors box, which meant meeting all sorts of famous people and having lunch! A nice mistake, that was! But nothing less than this extraordinary guy deserves.

The Clarence Adoo Trust

Andrew Green

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