Wellington, April 7 NZPA - A Scot who was crippled playing rugby in Hawke's Bay 20 years ago will this week return to Burwood spinal unit for the first time since he was a patient, then spend 10 days cycling 400km around the South Island.

David Millar has spent two decades in a wheelchair since the four months he was treated at the Christchurch spinal injuries unit.

Returning to where he was crippled will be "great", the former Scotland under-19 and -21 No 8 told the Journal newspaper in Newcastle.

"I think it will be cathartic in one sense, because it's certainly been a long time and I haven't been back to the unit since I left," he said.

He expected to visit the unit on Friday.

"I've got a lot of friends in New Zealand because I went back and studied at Auckland University for my psychology and neurosciences studies," he said.

"So it will be fantastic to catch up with a lot of them along the way.

"It was a pretty horrid time, but it was a very long time ago, and the staff at the unit in Christchurch were fantastic with me."

He wanted to raise funds for research into spinal injuries with his 400km trip on a specially-adapted hand-bike.

"It's going to be a very tough challenge, but one I'm really looking forward to as well," he said.

When he was hurt, Mr Millar was playing in Napier for a year, intending to go back to Scotland to target serious rugby.

He fell awkwardly while playing for the Pirates club, and damaged his spine.

He now works in Newcastle General Hospital's regional neurosciences centre.

He has already raised more than stg30,000 ($NZ65,000) for spinal research and for a rugby charity, Hearts and Balls, which assists catastrophically injured rugby players.

Starting in Christchurch, his cycle trip will take him to Geraldine, alongside the Lake Tekapo canal system, then on to the Otago Rail Trail.