Article as featured in the Red Roses v Australia match day programme - 12 September, 2026
We often talk about being part of the rugby family, but that family becomes a fundamental support when serious injuries happen. Thankfully, those are rare, but when life changing situations occur after a rugby injury, the RFU Injured Players Foundation (IPF) swings into action from day one.
It seems very strange when a wheelchair user tells you they are glad their injuries occurred in rugby, until they explain they’ve been in hospital with people who have had road accidents, crashed on the ski slopes and found themselves alone.
Dani Czernuszka-Watts sustained a spinal injury playing for Reading Rams in 2017 and the then mum of two had the IPF backing immediately.
“My rugby club and the IPF have been with me since day one,” she says. “I met so many people in my spinal injuries unit who had no support at all, but I had the IPF who gave me a future and helped me live an independent life.”
And what a life Dani has made. She has married her partner, Pete, had another chid, Isla Rose, a little sister for Freddie and Lillie-Rose. She has sailed around the Caribbean with other wheelchair users, completed the London Marathon to raise funds for the IPF and become an ambassador for the Spinal Injuries Association (SIA).
Throughout, Dani has campaigned for better, more accessible healthcare for disabled women and last year was invited to 10 Downing Street with the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Spinal Cord Injury to deliver SIA’s petition calling on the Prime Minister to adopt recommendations to build a national strategy for spinal cord injury.
Photo courtesy of Spinal Injuries Association
Despite chronic nerve pain, Dani is determined to still enjoy sport. She represented Great Britain at para ice hockey in the first women’s para world championship, coming fourth. In the 2022 world championships in Thailand, while playing for the mixed team, Dani made history when she became the first woman to score in an IPC world championship or Paralympics match. And last month at the Lee Valley Ice Rink took part in the GB Invitational Exhibition Tournament 2026 when Great Britain played Ukraine in an international showcase of para ice hockey.
Dani says she was fortunate in the people around her. “I have a really supportive husband, and you are never alone when you have the RFU Injured Players Foundation.”
Para ice hockey is, she says, “like a drug for me. It’s really fast paced. I’m out of my chair in a sled. It’s full body contact, hitting players up against the board, the same as standard ice hockey. It’s petrifying and exhilarating and being in a GB jersey brings out the fire and passion even more.”
Isla Rose was just seven weeks old when Dani flew out to the US for her first world challenge but, despite lots of battles through her pregnancy, she still achieved that dream.
“My children are my role models, the reason I’m thriving and doing my best. I want them to see that when life gives you a bad hand you haven’t lost.”
Dani has just returned from the Danube where, with the Redefining the Impossible Foundation, she joined six others who had experienced life changing injury or trauma in a variety of ways, cycling adapted and hand-powered bikes on the 200-mile route.
Photo courtesy of Redefining the Impossible
The Foundation’s mission is to harness the power of adventure to support people like Dani and she has certainly used that power to inspire her kids and the wider world.
Back in 2017 in John Radcliffe hospital, she underwent emergency spinal surgery and recalls: “Not only was I never to play rugby again, I was never going to take a single step, never chase my children, no more treks with Pete and I’d forever depend on a wheelchair.
“But a day after my catastrophic injury I was met by a man from the IPF, and he literally made what felt like a tornado ripping through into a calm rainy day. Pete had a phone call from them the very next morning telling him that they are, and always will be there, ready to help with any situation. The IPF took over my worries so I could concentrate on getting the best out of my six-month stay in hospital.
“To further my rehab, I was lucky enough to have the IPF backing three weeks of intensive rehab to really push my body to its new limits. That was provided by other people’s fund raising which is why Pete helped me complete the London Marathon so that someone else can benefit like we did from the IPF’s support.
“When I hit some hard brick walls which quickly got me down and into a dark place, again, the IPF was there to show me I’m not alone. I went on a weekend course and met other injured players. A room full of strangers quickly became a room full of new family friends – my rugby family.
“I want to spread the awareness of how important the IPF is. They haven’t just supported me physically they have provided care, compassion, emotional support, family support, medical support, home support and mental support. And it is the rugby community’s fundraising that sees every penny raised go towards the best support seriously injured rugby player can receive.”
Find out more about the IPF by following @RFUIPF on Instagram and Facebook.
