The spine is made up of a series of vertebrae. These vertebrae are split into categories.

The categories are cervical, thoracic, lumbar and sacral.

• The cervical vertebrae are numbered from C1 down to C7.
• The thoracic vertebrae are numbered from T1 down to T12.
• The lumbar vertebrae are numbered from L1 down to L5.
• The sacral vertebrae are numbered from S1 down to S5.

There are two types of spinal cord injury. One is a complete injury and the other is an incomplete injury.

Any two people who have suffered a complete injury to the spinal cord at the same point (for example T10) will have the same amount of movement as each other. This does not apply to people who have suffered an incomplete injury. Each incomplete injury is very different to the next one.