'It's so wonderful to be here. If you're the only person in a wheelchair you find people tend to avoid you. Here you feel ordinary'

Defying the best efforts of a punishingly hot sun, having previously defied so much more, Ed Barrett gets out of his wheelchair, stands perfectly vertical, and prepares to play paddle tennis alongside Sir AP McCoy. 

A few metres away is a large pool, around which an extraordinary collection of racing folk are busy doing nothing. Their number includes a woman who died on three occasions, a man who broke his neck twice and a married couple who, between them, have survived four different cancers. On this midweek afternoon in Islantilla, that's what you see. What you hear is laughter. So much laughter.

Much of it comes from the tennis court, where it becomes apparent during a closely fought doubles match that Barrett and McCoy are equally competitive in their efforts to defeat George and Nicola Baker. 

"You dirty shitbag!" shouts McCoy to the 2016 St Leger-winning rider, who has a tendency to wiggle his bottom while awaiting a serve. The wiggling is all to no avail.

Ed Barrett and Sir Anthony McCoy formed a successful partnership at paddle tennis

As good as they are at paddle tennis, McCoy and Baker have not come to southern Spain purely to whack a ball. McCoy is president of the Injured Jockeys Fund (IJF), which has once again brought a sizeable group of beneficiaries on a holiday that marks the charity's 60th anniversary. 

Baker is a trustee of the IJF and one of its greatest success stories, having survived serious head injuries in a fall seven years ago. These days he is head of coaching for British racing's jockey coach programme and a Racing TV pundit. Given how seriously ill he once was, that is utterly remarkable. This holiday, it turns out, is full of remarkable.

'I want people to see that you can do anything if you put your mind to it'

For most of the holidaymakers, the trip started on a chartered flight from Stansted to Faro. For Rhona Elliot, a former amateur rider and trainer diagnosed with multiple sclerosis 36 years ago, it began the previous day when she travelled from her home in the Scottish Borders to the IJF's Jack Berry House in Malton. Having spent the night there, she met up with other members of the IJF party on a coach that departed for Stansted at 6.30am. Elliot finally arrived in Islantilla at around midnight. No matter how well a trip is organised – and this one was organised very well indeed – air travel can be gruelling for those in wheelchairs.

"You don't know what it's like to be lifted up by people who don't know what they are doing – you feel like a piece of meat in a market," says Elliot, recalling an unpleasant experience at Stansted. Yet everything is different when the people know what they are doing; people like physiotherapist Scott Reed and sports rehabilitator Catherine Leeson, who made it possible for Elliot to get in a swimming pool for the first time since the last IJF holiday two years ago.

"I think we’re going to pivot you," Reed had said to Elliot as they prepared to take her into the water. "Do what you like. Just throw me in," replied Elliot, who runs the Multiple Sclerosis Borders Racing Club and does all she can to raise money for both the MS Society and IJF.

"Travel in a wheelchair is really difficult, which means you can't put a value on this holiday," she says, sat by the pool. 

Holidaymakers and members of IJF staff celebrate at a party in Spain to mark the charity's 60th anniversary

"It's so wonderful to be here. If you're the only person in a wheelchair you find people tend to avoid you. Here you feel ordinary. That's what makes it so special. When you come here you lose your disability. You just become an ordinary holidaymaker. You become the person you used to be, not someone with a disability."

That said, Elliot is keen to highlight the barriers wheelchair users face and believes she has devised a clever way of achieving her aim.

"I'm thinking of doing a new charity event this year and I'm jolly well going to milk it," says the 71-year-old before revealing her plan for Kelso's paddock to be turned into a wheelchair obstacle course that will be tackled by racing celebrities later this year. "It will shine a light on the problems wheelchair users encounter every day – and don't start me on people parking by drop pavements," she adds with feeling. Also said with feeling is the mantra that takes her from one day to the next.

"I want people to see that you can do anything if you put your mind to it," says Elliot.

Evidence of that is all around Islantilla.

'Every day we have a laugh and every day I tell her a different joke'

Isabel Tompsett and Thomas O'Farrell are decidedly loved up.

Both were once jockeys. O'Farrell rode over jumps in his native Ireland and then Britain, where Tompsett became lady champion amateur in 2010. One year later she suffered a Fakenham fall that ended her riding career and caused terrible head injuries.

Isabel Tompsett and partner Thomas O'Farrell enjoyed their time in Spain on the IJF holiday

"I was an ambitious vet. Doing that alongside the riding was going okay until the fateful day," says Tompsett. "I died three times and was in a coma for eight weeks, which is quite a big deal, but what happened to me happened to me. It's all water under the bridge. You just have to make the best of where you are – and I know that if it wasn't for the IJF and the NHS, I wouldn't be here now."

Islantilla is a particularly lovely place to be, especially when you happen to be with someone who adores you.

"The horses I rode weren't fast enough to fall," says O'Farrell, now a tarmacer whose early attempts to woo Tompsett were not entirely gleaned from Mills and Boon.

"I turned up two hours late because the traffic was bad getting back from work," he says. "I got to the pub and listened to what she said about dying three times. She explained how she got to the gates of heaven but was told to go back down to earth when she was asked for the entrance password and didn't have it. After she went through it all, I took a sip of my beer and said to her, 'I'll give you a go.'"

O'Farrell was not only two hours late, he also got Tompsett's name wrong throughout the evening, calling her Anabel instead of Isabel. Even so, the first date was followed by a second date.

"That must just mean I'm easy," says Tompsett, unleashing a supremely infectious laugh reminiscent of Joan Sims at her Carry On film sauciest. Moments later, O'Farrell reveals Tompsett's nickname for him is 'Two-second Tom'.

Isabel Tompsett, pictured with Sir AP McCoy and John Francome during the IJF holiday in Islantilla

Tompsett does not miss this open goal.

"That's nothing to be proud of, Tom!" she says before another mighty laugh lights up the area around the pool.

"No matter what the weather, hail, rain or snow, she gets up with a smile," says O'Farrell. "Every day we have a laugh and every day I tell her a different joke."

At this point Tompsett suggests her head injury might in one way have been useful. "He comes up with some old-school corkers," she says. "I've heard them but forgotten them."

Tompsett's memory might not be as good as it used to be but she still works as a vet and, in addition, has developed an unusual new skill.

"Think of a word, any word," says O'Farrell. 

The word I think of and announce is "juggle".

"Elgguj," says Tompsett immediately.

"She taught herself to speak backwards," explains O'Farrell. I respond by saying I'm relieved I didn't say "Aberystwyth". "So am I!" says Tompsett, laughing again. 

No matter what happened at the pearly gates, they are a match made in heaven.

'I feel like I'm one of the lucky ones'

The same is true of Billy and Helen Howlett, but unlike former jockey Billy, Helen is at home. Once back in Britain, Billy will return to work for the BHA and prepare to act as the recall flag operator in the Betfred Derby. When not on duty at a racecourse, Billy devotes his time to looking after his wife of 40 years. Both their lives were radically changed when Helen fell victim to dementia.

"The BHA are very good to me because they know the circumstances with Helen," says Howlett. "I make her some sandwiches and drinks and bring her to the races. She doesn't get out of the car but all the doctors and vets know her and check on her while I'm working. For the Derby I stand on the road by Downs House and park my car close by, so Helen can see me. On days when that wouldn't be possible, the IJF organises for someone to sit with her."

Former jockey Billy Howlett works as part of the BHA starting team and looks after wife, Helen, who lives with dementia,

Before carers arrive at the Howletts' front door each morning, Billy gets up at 6.30am to shower Helen.

"I don't want her to be messy when they arrive," says Howlett, who in recent years has become a dab hand in the kitchen, a place where his wife once excelled. "I didn't used to be able to cook but I read a lot of books and I haven't poisoned her yet," he points out. "The cooking actually gives me a bit of therapy – and she always eats it all up, too."

Howlett does not want your sympathy. He undoubtedly merits our admiration.

"As long as she smiles, I'm happy," he says, fresh from his own stint with a paddle tennis bat and some physiotherapy with Leeson.

"The killer for me is there's no conversation," he admits. "The only times I usually get to talk with people are when the carers come in or I go racing. That's why I'm so pleased I was invited to come here. I'm so grateful to the IJF, I really am. I don't know what I'd do without them."

In every sense, Howlett is surrounded by friends, including former weighing room comrades Wally Wharton, Gerry Gracey, David 'Mouse' Cooper and Ray Still, winner of the 1969 Ebor and much more besides. Yet alongside the many handicap wins were a number of serious injuries, including one sustained in Bangalore that halted his career for 18 months.

"It happened before Christmas and we had no presents for the children but Wally was out there and, bless his heart, he bought toys and wrapped them up in newspaper," says Still's wife, Mary, who has been through the mill during 53 years of marriage yet never stops smiling. Her husband is just the same.

"As a jockey, Ray was hospitalised with eight concussions," says Mary. "Since then he's had a triple heart bypass, prostate cancer and kidney problems. I've had lung cancer, breast cancer and skin cancer. It's very difficult for us to go on any holiday other than this one because the insurance costs more than the holiday."

Still would certainly struggle to get insured on a motorbike having been involved in a nasty crash following his retirement from racing,

"The visor cut my lip and left it hanging off," says Still, one of whose claims to fame was riding Sheikh Mohammed's first ever winner in Dubai, albeit in an unofficial race.

"Yeah, but as well as that you broke your collarbone, both your wrists and punctured your lung," interjects Mary. "Basically, everything he hadn't smashed when he was riding, he managed to smash when he was retired. That happened when he was doing Harry Potter."

Ray Still, pictured with wife, Mary, rode the 1969 Ebor winner and subsequently worked as a stand-in for Daniel Radcliffe during the filming of a Harry Potter movie

Lest you be confused, Still was employed as a stand-in for Daniel Radcliffe when scenes were being prepared for the second Harry Potter movie in 2002.

"Believe it or not, he did look like him," says Mary, who joins her husband at the IJF's Peter O'Sullevan House in Newmarket three times a week, including for regular gym classes.

"The staff are so amazing," she says. "I've never known a charity like the IJF. Honestly, when you walk inside Peter O'Sullevan House it's like being wrapped inside a big, warm blanket."

Perhaps that's another reason why the Stills are so unfailingly positive.

"I feel like I'm one of the lucky ones," Ray stresses. 

No matter what life has thrown at them, it's the sort of thing IJF beneficiaries say a lot.

'I didn't want to go to sleep because I was worried I might not wake up and see my daughter again'

It's all about having the right attitude. 

Lee Davies is a tetraplegic whose career as an apprentice jockey came to an end when he broke his neck in a 1990 car accident. He broke it for a second time in another car crash 20 years later.

Lee Davies and son Zian, pictured in Spain

"People who are newly injured come out here and see Lee living his best life," says IJF head of welfare Clare Hill. "They then realise things are going to be okay. He has a can-do attitude. He doesn't think about the things he can't do. He thinks about all the things he can do."

Much of what he does is for the benefit of others.

"I couldn't emphasise enough how much people get from these holidays," says Davies. "I was 21 when I came on the first holiday and the older jockeys gave me so much advice. Now I'm the one who tries to give advice.

"The first time Ed Barrett came on one of these holidays he was the quietest person we've ever seen. He is totally different now. His confidence level has soared. You have to be positive or you won't live your life to the full."

There is ready agreement from Barrett, left paralysed from the neck down in a 2015 point-to-point fall. Eight years later he climbed Mount Snowdon to raise money for the IJF and the Midlands Air Ambulance.

"I think the holidays are most important for people who have been recently injured because they benefit from talking with people who have been injured for longer," he says. "When you have your accident you tend to feel you're the only jockey in the world who has been injured. When you come here you realise that's not the case."

Sir AP McCoy and John Francome, pictured with (from left to right) Eve James, Margaret O'Leary, Jacqui Hutton and Laura Sweeney at a party to celebrate the IJF's 60th anniversary

Sunbathing on the lounger next to him is Jacob Pritchard Webb, paralysed in a French jump race four years ago.

"When we come here we benefit from the location but also from each other," says the 27-year-old bloodstock agent and broadcaster, who told his story in a powerful Racing Post Big Read last summer that ended with the words: "The life I must now have is harder, for sure, but not worse."

Expanding on that theme, he says: "You never truly get over your injury but you learn to manage it better from one year to the next. This holiday enables you to learn new things. I think you can see it as therapy but I also think each individual person takes something different from it. I look forward to it as a complete break from work. I've actually been using this week as a bit of a health kick."

In contrast, Martin Dwyer has become ever so slightly bigger. This proved costly when, as part of a group bet, Baker correctly guessed Dwyer's weight at 10st 3lb, a full 6lb in excess of the 2006 Derby-winning rider's own upper estimate. Such was the uproar that followed the weigh-in at Islantilla's local pharmacy that Dwyer, Baker, McCoy and Jimmy Quinn – in Islantilla as former jockey Allan Mackay's carer – were thrown out by the pharmacist.

"I think AP had his foot on the scales – the BHA needs to take this seriously," says Dwyer, one of whose fellow evictees from the pharmacist was Jordan Nason, a winning rider in Britain and New Zealand. Everything changed when at the age of 29 he was diagnosed with brugada syndrome, a life-threatening heart rhythm condition.

"The nature of brugada is it's when I'm asleep or resting that I'm most in danger," says Nason. 

"It all had a massive impact on me mentally. I didn't want to go to sleep because I was worried I might not wake up and see my daughter again. After endless nights without sleep your mind starts to think differently. I locked myself in my room. I didn't want to come out and I didn't want to speak with people. I suffered really badly with anxiety and got into serious financial problems through not being able to work.

"The IJF contacted me last year when I was at my lowest. They helped me in every possible way and got me back on track. I now feel like the person I was when I was riding."

Jordan Nason: "The IJF helped me in every possible way"

Nason hopes to ride again. For others on the holiday, that is not an option, yet when they came together last Friday evening for a reception to mark 60 years of the IJF supporting jockeys and their loved ones, there was a sense of unity, shared purpose and love. 

McCoy was there, as were IJF chief executive Lisa Hancock, chairman William Norris and vice patron John Francome, who flew to Spain in order to give a speech on behalf of the charity's indefatigable vice-president Jack Berry, normally an ever-present on the holiday but on this occasion unable to attend.

"If somebody asked you to name the top five human beings you had met in your life, Jack Berry would be in the top three," said Francome, who quite rightly described the IJF stalwart as "an inspiration".

It was a word that summed up the man but also the holiday. Across a few fabulous days in Spain, inspiration was everywhere.

This column is exclusive to Members' Club Ultimate subscribers. Read more pieces from Lee Mottershead here:

'There has been no promotion because there is nothing to promote' - will Premier racing recover from its stuttering start? 

Internal unrest and financial blows: is there a crisis brewing at the Jockey Club? 

'Educating myself has let me live a fuller life - just because you've been diagnosed with dyslexia doesn't mean you can't keep working at it' 

'It was one of the lowest points in my life. I felt a sense of injustice and I still feel it now'  

Harry Cobden: ‘Some jockeys go home and play on the Playstation - I go home and play on the farm’ 

'Our house burnt down - and the Gold Cup was definitely the thing I was most upset to lose as it took four years and two noses to win'  

Revealed: the racehorse owner fronting an illegal bookmaker with more than 1,000 customers

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