Parnham was the captain of the England hockey team and was hit by a flying hockey stick in the last minute of a match against Pakistan in August 2001. A complete freak accident, it was no laughing matter, as it left him with a shattered larynx and gasping for breath. “Suddenly I couldn’t breathe,” he said. “I charged over to the bench and our team doctor screamed for a stretcher and oxygen. There was talk that I may die and, if I lived, would never talk again.” Medical staff rushed Parnham to an intensive care unit. Once he had been airlifted back to Britain, a skin graft was taken from his thigh and specialists rebuilt his larynx, which had smashed into four pieces, and the cartilage at the top of his windpipe. Within months he was playing for his country again.