At only 23 years of age, Alex Noble has shown the world that just about anything is possible. After breaking his neck playing rugby in 2018 leaving him a permanent quadriplegic, he has gone from re-learning how to breathe and talk again, to becoming a high achiever at high school and university, a CEO, a tax consultant, a nationwide motivational speaker, a mental health and disability advocate, a fundraiser for spinal cord injury research, the 2025 NSW Young Australian of the Year runner-up, and a #1 bestselling author.
Alex Noble was a sixteen-year-old rugby star and had a promising sporting career ahead of him. Alex spent his life focusing on two things and two things only, his rugby career and having fun. However, as a result, Alex disregarded everything else important in life including his studies, work, family and helping others. This was until his injury forced him to adapt to change.
Tragically, on Sunday the 21st of October 2018, he was training with the Under-17 NSW Rugby Sevens selection squad when a sudden on-field accident left him fighting for his life in a four-day coma in the ICU. Diagnosed with C4 quadriplegia, Alex was unable to breathe on his own, nor talk, and the only thing he could move was his eyes. Alex was told he would never regain any movement
from the neck down. However, Alex had different plans…
After waking up from a four-day coma and spinal surgery, Alex’s first words were: “If I fight, you fight”.
Defying the odds, not only has he learned how to breathe and talk again, but he can now push a manual wheelchair, stand up and even do squats with a 20kg vest on his back.
Whilst spending over 9 months in hospital/rehab recovering and relearning how to live his new life, Alex missed nearly a year of school and consequently was told he needed to complete his HSC over a few extra years and graduate without his year group. However, by the end of year 12, he managed to graduate with his year group, he received a 96.7 ATAR, he placed 3rd in NSW for PDHPE and he
received the Insignis Award – ‘The highest honour awarded at St Ignatius College Riverview’.
Alex’s mental strength, resilience and profound strategies have led him to continue to achieve more than many do in a lifetime. Nowadays, at only twenty-three years of age, Alex is in his final year of a business and law degree at university, he has worked in finance, a law firm and he is now a tax consultant, he is the CEO of a successful boat rental company, he is a well-renowned motivational speaker across Australia, he is an advocate for mental health and disability, he is an ambassador and fundraiser for spinal cord injury research and rehabilitation, he has travelled the world numerous times, he is the 2025 NSW Young Australian of the Year runner-up, and he has just recently become a #1 bestselling author of his brand-new book ‘I Fight You Fight’.
Alex says his ultimate goal is to “share the perspective and philosophies which have helped me not only to get through the darkest days of my life, but to grow and achieve more than I ever thought possible. This way, other people from any demographic or occupation can use my message as a toolkit in their own lives to help them to not give up, to overcome challenges, to find happiness, to be resilient, to achieve the goals they’re pursuing and to be the very best they can be.”