Addison’s attitude inspired all of us – Hearn
IN his book Crash
Tackle, published in 1972, Hearn pays handsome tribute to another young rugby player he met during his ten months at Stoke Mandeville, Wales U21 prop Roger Addison who had broken his neck playing for Pontypool at Rugby some months before.
Addison, it transpired, was even more severely injured than Hearn but his constant good spirits, smile and determination not to be crushed by his misfortune, set an upbeat and positive tone for all those around him.
As Hearn wrote in the book: “We derived a tremendous stimulus from him as we all knew he was much worse off than the rest of us and therefore we had nothing to complain about. He was an inspiration.”
Addison’s subsequent story does not make for easy reading. While Hearn was able to return to his job as a teacher, get married and lead a fulfilling career, Addison was less fortunate having to spend the rest of his life in hospital – mostly at Rockwood in Cardiff before being transferred to the University Hospital of Wales – before dying aged 65 in 2010.
Throughout that time he remained positive and, although forgotten by the sporting community at large, was always in the minds of the Pontypool club and Welsh rugby. Bob Jeremiah from the Pontypool secretary visited him almost every week as did many other club members.
Richard Burton and Liz Taylor called in, the Wales Grand Slam teams sent signed pictures and jerseys.