Back on track! Brain op husband rebuilds life with the help of a classic model railway
WHEN John Colquhoun had an operation to remove a brain tumour, he was left unable to walk or talk and had no short-term memory.
But now his life is back on track – after months of building a model railway to aid his recovery.
Mr Colquhoun, 59, says his work on the railway set – which he had started years before with his father – was ‘integral in saving my life’.
He added: ‘It gave me purpose, something to work on and look forward to when I was so very disabled, and in doing so fine-tuned physical and mental skills that became vital to my recovery.
‘Without it – and the close emotional and family touches it had – I doubt my recovery would have come so far.’ Minor short-term memory problems persist, but he has largely shrugged off the physical effects of his brain surgery.
The model, which has cost around £5,000 so far, is a replica of parts of the West Norfolk network. It is 15ft long and 10ft wide and model stations include King’s Lynn and Downham Market.
Australian Mr Colquhoun began the project with his father, Alexander, after trips to see relatives in Norfolk in the 1960s.
They completed some station buildings and rolling stock before his father died in 1965. He said: ‘When I got married and had two boys, it got resurrected and we did more work.’
The railway later returned to storage as he focused on his job with Australian airline Qantas and his children grew up.
Mr Colquhoun discovered he had a brain tumour in 2013. Although non- cancerous, it was potentially fatal because it threatened to block the flow of cerebral spinal fluid.
He was in intensive care for 13 days after the eight-hour operation in 2014 and his wife, Fran, 58, gave up her job to care for him when he was discharged after three months.
‘When he came out he couldn’t walk or talk properly,’ she said. ‘That’s when the doctors said “You really need to do something”.’
Mrs Colquhoun remembered the railway and suggested he focus on that. On average, he spent a couple of hours every day tinkering with it. ‘It helped him so much with his motor skills, thinking and problem solving,’ she said.
Four years later, Mr Colquhoun, who has to take morphine for damage to his nervous system and anticonvulsants to prevent seizures, is st ill working on the set, which occupies one of the bedrooms in his home in Brisbane.