I had the pleasure of catching up with Leigh on the phone recently. After his life changing accident 38 months ago, he was told in rehab that it would take two years to reap the full benefit of their work. For the first three months he had no feeling or movement whatsoever in his legs, apart from a few toe movements, but gradually movement came slowly to his left leg, and now he has around 50% use. Unfortunately, he can’t do much with the right leg at all, in fact in his words, it’s useless! He pretty well relies on his wheelchair to get around. Things haven’t improved at all in the last twelve months or more and he now admits that he’d need a miracle cure to be able to walk again. If he has something to hold onto, he can just about stand on both legs, so he uses the parallel bars in his gym daily to get up and stretch his legs and stand, but he couldn’t do it without something to hold on to. He certainly can’t walk on them. As we all know, Leigh is not a person to complain, so when he says that he gets a lot of pain in his stomach, we know that it must be bad. Stretching himself gives a little relief from that. Reflecting on the dreadful injuries that he sustained at the time of his accident, he is so grateful to be where he is now. He knows that there are a heck of a lot of people who are far worse off. When he goes back to the rehab centre, he walks through and sees the quadraplegics and thinks to himself, “Yeah, I’m alright!” Seeing them struggle without the use of all four limbs, knowing they can’t drive for themselves and that they need carers 24/7, he realises, despite his disabilities, just how lucky he has been. Isn’t that just typical of the man? He admitted that one of the worst things for him is the fact that he’s getting fat. He has lost a lot of his muscles, so after dinner he just sits around….he can’t exercise enough to burn it off! “I’ve got a gut like Rosco and a big arse!” he joked. Kylie, Dec and Casey are well. They’re looking forward to the warm weather coming, and are so glad that their winter is drawing to a close. It’s at that point that I had to remind Kylie just how bad winters are back in Europe! They tend to forget so quickly, don’t they? Their winters are more like our summer is over here at the moment, apart from the fact that we haven’t got the deep blue skies and almost daily sunshine. I have no sympathy whatsoever! Leigh’s been helping some of the lads with their speedway, including Dec of course, who’s coming on just great. As for Dec coming to England, at the moment there’s no immediate plans….it’s not even in his thoughts. Cameron Woodward has offered to bring him over and maybe Kylie could come with him, but first they want him to take an apprenticeship and get a skill to fall back on. Will Leigh come back to Europe? There really isn’t any realistic hope of seeing him over here in the near future. There’s no way that he could manage the journey and all that it entails. For now, he can just dream of it and be thankful that he can enjoy following the Elite League, Swedish League and Grand Prix on television, which is being broadcast in Australia, just as it is over here, albeit at an unearthly hour, during the middle of the night. Leigh is so grateful for all of your continuing messages of support and thankful for how his progress has been followed on these pages. If it’s going to take a miracle to see him walk again, let’s pray that he does receive that miracle in the not too distant future. One thing you can be assured of Leigh, Europe will always be so thankful for the memories that we have of you. We’ll never forget you pal. With thanks to Wade Aunger for the great pictures.
Posted on: Thu, 28 Aug 2014 10:47:06 +0000
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