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Part 3 of Junior Bader Grant Recipient of the Month, Thomas Talbot’s, Sporting Journey

Herewith the 3rd instalment of Thomas Talbot’s sporting journey. Our first Junior Bader Grant Recipient of the Month, Thomas was born with cerebral palsy but, showing the Bader spirit in spades as you will see from this latest report, Thomas pursues success as a RaceRunner with a courage and determination that makes him a worthy and thoroughly inspirational BGRotM.


My Sporting Journey Part 3

Cerebral palsy and sport – it doesn’t always go your way!

When I got back from Denmark, the very next week I had to have Botox operations on my legs to help let them stretch a bit more again as they were so tight. They also found some problems with my hip.

In October 2016 I got some really bad news that I needed surgery on my hip as the hip was half in and half out. It is common with children with cp that their hip sockets don’t always form properly as they learn to walk much later than abled bodied kids.  Even so it was not the news I wanted.

In January 2017 I had hip re-construction surgery at Sheffield Children’s Hospital and I spent my 13th birthday in hospital. Not the best way to become a teenager!

 

I was in a hip spica for 7 weeks. After the spica came off, I had to have lots of physio! It took me until May 2017 to go back to school whilst having to learn to walk all over again. This was because they had to take quite abit of bone from my thigh to graft into my hip and I now have quite a leg length difference between my left and right legs. I got a Rotary Child of Courage Award whilst I was recovering too! I dreamt I would walk again and I promised myself I would get back on my RaceRunner. By July 2017 I was back on my feet and moving around!

 

By August 2017 I was back on my RaceRunner using it for walking therapy. It was a struggle and we had to adapt how I ran with a built up shoe. Quietly we trained!

In late September 2017 I returned to the track and I won the Cerebral Palsy Sport Under 14
National CP Championships for 100m, 200m, 400m & 800m and I was close to my PBs too!

 

  

All the hard work to fight back to fitness has been worth it as I found out in late October 2017 that I have been selected to represent England at the CPISRA World Games in Spain in August 2018. So the hard work starts.

I have been training hard through the winter… it has been cold… it has been wet… it has been snowy!


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Click on the link to download a pdf which can be printed or saved of the original document of Thomas’s My Sporting Journey Part 3

You can look forward to Part 4 of Thomas’s Sporting Journey, which will follow shortly…