Willoughby nearing his wedding ambition

THESE are the revolutionary knee braces paralysed BMX star Sam Willoughby will use to live his dream of standing for his New Year’s Eve wedding.

Custom-made in the US, the lightweight braces worth about $10,000 can be locked to stop his knees buckling and allow him to remain upright long enough to marry fiancee and fellow racer Alise Post.

The 26-year-old Olympic medallist is continuing his recovery from a training crash last year which left him without movement from the chest down.

“Progress wise the latest has been a lot of focus on standing and

I am able to stand unassisted holding onto parallel bars for around 10 minutes now,” he said.

“I also recently got some knee braces to use for the wedding which allow me to stand and take some steps without worrying about my knees buckling.”

The knee braces came about after his brother Matt researched them and Willoughby then discussed them with his physical therapist.

He was measured up in San Diego in July when specialists made casts of his body from the waist down.

He got them last month and wears them as part of his daily rehabilitation but also does exercises without them in a bid to teach his body to walk again.

“He’s in excellent spirits, the fact that he’s got to standing now and is acknowledging the improvement is great and he can see there is some progress,” Willoughby’s mother Sharon said.

“And he’s looking like he used to, he’s fit, he’s built his upper body up and it enables him to do a lot more.

“He has more options because to get out of that chair and even get into a vehicle is a huge task.”

Having progressed from lying on his back in hospital to crawling and now standing, Willoughby’s next major goal is to be able to take a step.