WAR VET’S S TORY HITS JT

NORTH Queensland Cowboys co cocaptain Johnathan Thurston has been hit by some of the league’s biggest forwards without shedding a tear but it was an Afghanistan war veteran and double amputee that had the football legend choked up.

Damien Thomlinson ( pictured) who lost both his legs when he drove over an improvised Taliban bomb while serving with the Special Forces in Afghanistan, delivered a powerful speech at the Cowboys season launch yesterday at the Townsville Entertainment Centre.

Thurston ( inset) who was clearly moved, needed a few moments to compose himself on stage while half the audience wiped away tears.

Mr Thomlinson told the Bulletin yesterday he was used to receiving an emotional response to his story.

“It did get him ( Thurston) and that’s a reasonably common reaction,” he said. “Townsville is a military town so what I talk about is very close to people’s hearts.

“I’ve been able to whittle down my experiences in Afghanistan with the Special Forces to five principles to use in motivational speaking and those principles transition very well to the sport world and a team environment.”

Mr Thomlinson now uses his story to motivate other people based d on the principles of team not t self, ownership and account- ability, confidence not arro- gance, toughness not fitness s and integrity above all.

He also scored an acting rolee playing a double amputee in the movie Hackshaw Ridge, directed by Mel Gibson and nominatedd for six Academy Awards.