Injured athlete steps out for sports awards

massey-university

Mon Oct 08 2007 13:00:00 GMT+1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)

Injured athlete steps out for sports awards

Monday, 8 October 2007, 4:23 pm
Press Release: Massey University

Monday, October 8, 2007

Attending Massey’s Blues Sports Awards dinner tonight in Auckland will be a rare social outing for top New Zealand sportswoman Anna Hamilton, seriously injured when she was knocked off her cycle during a training ride two months ago.

The 21-year-old Massey student, one of the country’s top multi-sports athletes, suffered serious head injuries and has undergone two major operations to repair damage to her neck, spine, shoulder and collarbone.

Since being hit by a car on 3 August on State Highway 17 near Dairy Flat, she has been taking things very quietly at home as she recovers, says her mother Katy Hamilton.

She has physiotherapy treatment away from home twice a week, and can now walk several hundred metres without a walking frame.

Even reading and watching television make her tired because the head injury has affected her eyesight – something she hopes will gradually improve.

“She’s supposed to stay in a very low stimulus environment, away from tv, cellphones, computers, people and crowds,” says Mrs Hamilton, who has been politely dissuading “hundreds of kind and interested well-wishers” who want to visit Anna. Even a small amount of stimulation could upset her recovery and see her back in hospital.

Mrs Hamilton says staying at home in quiet, bush-clad surroundings has been the best therapy for her daughter.

Wearing a full upper body brace means she cannot sit for long due to the discomfort. “She’s either walking or lying down,” Mrs Hamilton says.

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Anna, who is enrolled as a part-time student in a Bachelor of Science degree majoring in human nutrition, says she is happy to be attending the dinner as she had been separated from her sporting life since the accident.

She will begin swimming training in three weeks when her body brace comes off and plans to resume study next year.

Twenty-six athletes of national and international standing will receive Blues awards tonight at the function at University’s Auckland campus and a sportsman and sportswoman of the year will be named.

Tomorrow night a similar function will be held at Palmerston North, where 47 athletes from the Wellington and Palmerston North campuses will receive Blues awards.

ENDS

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