Recovery grit ‘amazing achievement’
‘‘I feel extremely lucky that I have had this sort of recovery. I know it doesn’t happen for everyone. Every spinal cord injury is different.’’
Andrew Leslie
Andrew Leslie stumbled to the finish line in an ungainly fashion to a warm round of applause. He had nothing left.
‘‘I’m exhausted to be honest,’’ Leslie said minutes after completing a 5km run in front of his friends and family in Karori.
‘‘I completely emptied the tank. It wasn’t pretty at times, but what a sense of accomplishment.’’
Two years ago, the 49-yearold broke his neck in Wellington’s Ma¯kara Peak Mountain Bike Park.
He damaged his spinal cord and became a tetraplegic.
As of December last year, there were 2282 active claims for serious spinal cord injuries across New Zealand, with 128 of these in the Wellington region.
The cost of supporting people with these injuries was more than $338 million in 2021, and almost $19.7m in Wellington.
A total of 86 people sustained a new spinal cord impairment across New Zealand last year.
ACC chief customer officer Mike Tully said ACC was proud to have played a leading role in Leslie’s recovery over the past two years, funding ongoing physiotherapy sessions.
‘‘It’s inspiring to see how far Andrew has come through his drive, determination, and hard work.
‘‘We’re also proud to be supporting hundreds of other people each year living with spinal cord impairments as they each embark on their own unique recovery journeys.’’
Leslie was placed in an induced coma following his accident and his family was told he would be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.
It was a reality Leslie never accepted.
In April last year, he marked the one-year anniversary of the accident by walking up Makara Peak to the site of the crash.
One year on, he has achieved the unthinkable.
‘‘When I go back two years from now to where I was – lying in the Burwood Spinal Unit – to where I am now, I can’t believe it,’’ Leslie said.
‘‘I feel extremely lucky that I have had this sort of recovery.
‘‘I know it doesn’t happen for everyone.
‘‘Every spinal cord injury is different.’’
Leslie said the ongoing ACC support has been a ‘‘real plank’’ in his recovery.
‘‘I love everything about running, I love how it feels. I love being in those environments. I love the fitness I get from it . . . to get that ability back has been an emotional experience.’’
Leslie said he had a seed of hope after coming out of hospital following the accident. ‘‘I had a remarkable recovery within hospital. I was able to get from my wheelchair to walking and that gave me a lot of confidence that I could continue to improve and recover.’’
Over recent months, Leslie has gone from restricted movement to the running motion he can complete now.
But in the early days it was hard work.
‘‘The question kept popping into my head, ‘So how do I run?’
‘‘My body wouldn’t flick into running.
‘‘I would try to make it run. It just wasn’t happening.’’
He said the ‘‘watershed moment’’ was when he had recurring dreams about what it felt like to run and realised, ‘‘maybe you are overthinking this’’.
‘‘I felt like I just needed to let go. I had to let my body run. I knew it was in there somewhere, I just had to find the mental cue to unlock it.’’
Leslie has invested in neurophysics and yoga therapy to go with his ACC-funded physiotherapy.
NZ Spinal Trust chief executive Hans Wouters said Leslie’s feat was remarkable.
‘‘From being told he might never walk again to running 5km in only two years is an amazing achievement,’’ Wouters said.
‘‘This is testament to Andrew’s remarkable grit and determination. The New Zealand Spinal Trust is proud to have played a role in Andrew’s rehabilitation during this time.
‘‘Each of the 220 spinal cord impairments sustained by New Zealanders each year are different, and everyone is on their own unique journey to improve their overall health.’’