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Michael (Mick) McIntyre

Michael John McIntyre (Mick), (born Maitland, South Australia on 22nd January 1955) is an Australian wheelchair athlete, who has won gold medals at the Paralympic Games and various other Championships.

Mick McIntyre competing at the Paralympics.

As a child Mick was struck with polio which affected the right side of this body. Then on the 14th January 1979 Mick had a shocking motorcycle accident. Mick's injuries crushed his T10, T11 and T12 and broke his Lumbar1. With courage and determination, Mick overcame the psychological and physical hurdles to become one of Australia and the World's best wheelchair athletes of the time.

Athletics career

Mick started playing wheelchair basketball in 1981. He made the state wheelchair basketball team for South Australia in 1985. From January 1985 - January 1986 Mick participated in both state wheelchair basketball and wheelchair athletics.

In January 1986, Mick was told to choose between basketball and athletics. He qualified for the World Championship Games in Stoke Mandeville, United Kingdom. Mick won 6 gold medals (100 metres, 200 metres, 400 metres, 800 metres, 4 x 100m relay and the 4 x 400m relay). He also won 2 bronze medals (4 x 200m relay and the marathon). In the 4 x 200m relay, the Australian team was so far in front that one of the athletes fell out of his chair, got back in and they still managed to come third. In the Marathon, Mick achieved his personal best time of 2 hours and 5 minutes.

Some of Mick McIntyre's medals.

Medal Record
Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
International Stoke Mandeville Games	8	2	3
Paralympic Games	2
World Championships Canoeing	2
Masters Games	4

International Stoke Mandeville Games
1986	Gold	100m
1986	Gold	200m
1986	Gold	400m
1986	Gold	800m
1986	Gold	4x100m Relay
1986	Gold	4x400m Relay
1986	Bronze	4x200m Relay
1986	Bronze	Marathon
1987	Gold	100m
1987	Gold	200m
1987	Silver	4x100m Relay
1987	Silver	4x400m Relay
1987	Bronze	800m
1987	2nd	Fastest Man on Wheels

Mick McIntyre (front, 2nd from left) receiving his Australian Paralympic Team medal in 2024. Medal number 300.

Personal life

Mick was born on xx January 1955 in the town of Maitland on the Yorke Peninsula in South Australia. He was the second of 13 children to parents Mollie and Frank. His siblings are; Margie, Pat, Tom, Pete, Ged, Matt, Dave, Terry, Andrew, Frank, Cathy and Tess. He grew up on a farm that grew mostly wheat, barley and sheep.

There was an epidemic of atypical polio in South Australia 1949-1955 and as an infant Michael contracted the polio virus  which along with flu like symptoms caused diffuse muscle stiffness/paralysis. He recovered but it left a degree of muscle weakness in the right side of his body for life.There was an epidemic of atypical polio in South Australia 1949-1955 and as an infant Michael contracted the polio virus  which along with flu like symptoms caused diffuse muscle stiffness/paralysis. He recovered but it left a degree of muscle weakness in the right side of his body for life.

He attended both Minlaton and Maitland Area schools and from an early age, was keen on any form of sport, it was an outlet from the tensions of home life and he became a very fast sprinter and avid competitor.

The Maitland Area School’s motto was Carpe Diem which in Latin means “seize the day”. At school assembly on Sports Day, the Headmaster Mr Charlesworth made a speech incorporating that motto, adding “There is no such thing as can’t ! Whatever the challenges you face in life, you can achieve your goals". This was a memorable speech for Mick ( he can still repeat it ) and although his scholastic achievements were limited, his sporting achievements weren’t. He participated in and won many events including the Junior Cup for Athletics and the Senior Cup for Athletics which he entered as a junior and came 3rd.

1970-1971 Mick boarded at Sacred Heart College in Adelaide. He struggled with the boredom and routine of hours of study and the loss of his perceived freedom, particularly that of being outdoors. He excelled in athletics though, and won the School One Mile race - 4 laps of the school oval, and represented Sacred Heart College  in the Interschool Athletics competitions.

At 16 he left school to become an apprentice plumber in Hackham and boarded in Brighton. He stayed for 12 months, and learnt as much as he could but then left because he felt the job responsibilities were too great - he was left many times to complete jobs that legally needed 2 men to do.

The next year he returned to Maitland to participate in the RED scheme, a 6month  Federal Government funded project to employ young farming lads with the local Councils. The work was varied, interesting and outdoors! He worked with a group whose responsibilities were to paint the Halls at Petersville and Maitland, (often atop the cherrypicker) , to concrete the 5 boat ramps along the Coast from Blackpoint to Pt Vincent and to trim the majestic pine trees that line the main roads leading into the township of Maitland. At the end of the 6 month project, he started work in the office at Bennett Farmers Maitland and soon got a transfer to the Bennett Farmers Murray Bridge office where he worked for 12months, and played football for the Murray Bridge Ramblers, and then the Blanchetown/SwanReach football team. His form of transport for the 190km round trip was his dirt bike that he hired for $10 a weekend.

He then got a job at the Murray Bridge meat works where he resumed work outside, herding the cattle and sheep to the various pens with his own personally trained sheepdog, Ted.

In 1976 Mick and his girlfriend, Meredith went on a working holiday to Perth for 12 months. He had a variety of jobs including stocktaking at a factory, working at a foundry making castes for cast iron equipment, and crutching sheep at a meat works,14 per minute. It was quick work  because the sheep were perched in a row with their backsides facing up and dead.

In 1977 , Mick and Meredith returned to Murray Bridge and  decided to go their seperate ways, not before Meredith bought Mick a bike - a 380GT Suzuki water cooled motor bike. Mick couldn’t get his old job back and he wasn’t interested in one job on offer - that of catching chooks, which entailed going into a pen and catching 5 chooks per hand per time, to fill the semi trailers that were on standby. He therefore moved to live and work in Mannum, a small town 30kms from Murray Bridge, also situated the bank of the River Murray.

Firstly he worked at a foundry working with molten metal, then joined the road maintenance crew at the Mannum Council. This move enabled him to get all the required licences - tip truck, dozer and loader. He then worked as a foreman at Horwood Bagshaw - a farm and agricultural machinary company- in the galvanising shed. Meanwhile, the Pretoria hotel in Mannum changed hands, and one of the 2 new owners asked Mick if he could wall-paper his newly acquired house, to which Mick replied yes. Mick then promptly spent time at the library learning how to do it and completed the job within 3 months. The publicans also gave him the job of driving to and from Adelaide each weekend to listen to bands and to encourage the bands to come to the hotel to play their music. They paid Mick $5 per hour to travel to and from Adelaide and to listen to the bands.

Mick is very proud of the fact that he got SkyHooks to come and play at the Pretoria hotel at Mannum during this time. He also worked on Saturday nights in the front bar of the Pretoria Hotel after playing footy, but he specified, only till 11pm so he could catch up with his mates afterwards.

During this time, Mick shared a house with Fiona Sheeney, also from a large family of 8 children. She worked at the local chemist, and in their free time, they enjoyed  water skiing and all the activities of a riverside town. Mick also played basketball, squash and 8Ball and enjoyed the company of like minded bikers who took road trips, went camping and rode dirt bikes.

Sunday 14 January 1979 Mick had a serious motor bike/car accident. Fiona was 4 months pregnant. Their lives would change forever.

One of Mick’s friends, Andy, had bought a 750 Kawasaki motor bike and wanted to try it out. Mick agreed but didn’t want to do it on any bitumen roads because he had come off his bike a month earlier at Verdun, on the main road from Mannum to Adelaide  and had seriously bruised his hip. So Mick, Andy and Ron rode their bikes on dirt roads from Mannum to the Adelaide hills near Chain of Ponds, Gumeracha and Birdwood

When they came upon the main road to Mt Pleasant, Andy said he wanted to try the bike out on the bitumen. Mick said he’d wait and watch the two of them from where he was at the top of the hill. From there he watched as Andy’s bike drifted off the road and hit a white jarrah post and tossed the bike over a rough stone wall. Andy was badly injured and Mick sought help from the nearest house on the dirt road. The owner assisted at the crash site while Mick phoned the ambulance.

When Mick returned, the ambulance and police were in attendance. Mick and Ron decided they’d ride back to Mannum but the police said they must firstly go to the Mt Pleasant police station and make a statement. After riding some kilometres towards Mt Pleasant, Mick felt that Ron was not near, so he turned around and went back to find Ron standing slumped over his bike. Mick was on the other side of the road and was about  to turn and join him, as a car towing a trailer and boat came over the top and sped down the hill. The front wheel of Mick’s bike hit the side of the car, the bike flipped and Mick went under the tandem wheels of the trailer. The driver braked but the car took time to stop, and Mick was wedged and dragged  underneath the wheels. He was rushed by ambulance to the Royal Adelaide Hospital

He was in intensive care for 7 weeks with severe spinal injuries. The human spine has 3 sections  of vertebrae - cervical, thoracic and lumbar. There are 7 cervical vertebrae in the neck C 1-7, 12 thoracic vertebrae in the torso T1-12 and 5 lumbar vertebrae in the lower back L1-5. The sacrum and coccyx are at the base of the spine and are part of the pelvis. Mick had suffered 3 crushed thoracic vertebrae, numbers T10,T11 and T12 and had broken his Lumbar 1 and damaged the spinal cord. His back had been ripped of skin, with bitumen, gravel and bits of tar imbedded in the tissue.

In time he would undergo many skin grafts on his back but in the meantime he had to endure the gruelling experience of the twice daily body flip to soak the gravel from his back. He had 2 x 20cm rods inserted into his back ,in line with his spine, to assist with stabilisation of the spine. Mick was declared a paraplegic. An incomplete-paraplegic because he had some movement/sensation below the break in the spine. He had minimal movement from the waist down but he could feel his stomach muscles and a small amount in his quad muscles at the top of both legs and in both hip flexes. He had no feeling in his buttocks, nor under his legs, nor anything from his knees down.

At the end of the 7 weeks, Mick was transferred to the Hampstead Spinal Injury Rehabilitation Unit where he would spend 10 months undergoing rehabilitation. He firstly spent time in a tilt bed, going from being horizontal and then increasing the tilt by small increments to get the body’s muscles and organs used to being upright again.

The next step was to get him fitted and put into a manual wheel chair. Then came the training in the gym. This was a long and difficult process for a broken body. The regime started with small  sandbags, then to weights of small increments to gradually strengthen the muscles of his upper body, so as to be able to lift himself without the use of his legs.

He had to be strong enough to lift himself from the floor back into his wheelchair, to be strong enough to lift himself from his wheelchair to the bed, to the car,  to the shower chair, to the toilet:  be able to do it all. The strength training was intense and constant. In June, Mick had the rods removed from his back. It was 4 weeks before Fiona was due for the birth of their baby, so there was time for Mick to heal enough to be present at the birth.

Rachel Louise McIntyre came 3 weeks early on June 4th 1979 at the Queen Victoria hospital. Mick left his hospital bed for the birth but arrived 2 minutes after the the baby had been delivered safely. Fiona and baby Rachel went home to Mannum and Mick went back to hospital. When Mick had recovered and was back at Hampstead, he returned to the gym and trained with Bob St Choon, son of the Hampstead Director, who was an able bodied gym instructor specialising in strength training. As Mick’s strength, balance and wheelchair ability increased,Bob and Mick together set up an obstacle course in the Hampstead grounds where Mick learnt to do wheel stands and spins, to jump up and down gutters, drop down steps on his back wheels, ride across gravel and over cement blocks.

All the wheelchair skills that he felt necessary for life back in the community. He wanted to be able to do as much as he could in a wheelchair as he could before the accident. He also spent a lot of his time  on the basketball court shooting basketballs where he came to the attention of Richard Oliver, the paraplegic team captain of SA Wheelchair Sports who worked at Bedford Industries but trained at the Hampstead gym. He noticed that Mick sat tall in his wheel chair and was super fit, and looked to have good potential for wheelchair basketball. Mick was not a good shooter because he couldn’t raise his arms above his shoulders because of his injuries but he was a good rebounder. They discussed the possibilities.

At this time there were 21 patients in the spinal unit at Hampstead. The staff, who were comprised of physiotherapists, occupational therapists, social workers, doctors and nurses held weekly meetings regarding the progress of the patients.

October 1979, after ten months of rehabilitation they made the decision that Mick was ready for discharge and so in November, he returned to Mannum, to the house that Fiona had made changes to, to accommodate his wheelchair and to his 5 month old baby daughter Rachel. While he continued his fitness programme at home, there were no wheelchair sporting facilities in Mannum so Richard Oliver invited Mick to play wheelchair basketball at the St Claire stadium, Woodville, with him  and other paraplegics and able-bodied basketballers who played in wheelchairs. The training was intense to keep the squad of  state players fit and capable. The training was on Sunday nights so after training, Mick, Fiona and baby Rachel would stay with Richard Oliver and his family in Adelaide and return to Mannum on Monday mornings.

Mick worked as the Assistant Project Officer, then as the Project Officer with CYS - the Community Youth Support Scheme, (a federally funded programme to assist unemployed youth find work) and Fiona was working at the Mannum Hotel. In December 1981 Mick and Fiona separated. Fiona and Rachel, who was now 2 1/2 years moved to Melbourne with Fiona’s new partner.

Mick wanted to continue his wheelchair sports training so he  moved to Adelaide, into a house at Beulah Park with 4 others from Mannum, and work at a private hospital in Payneham. Mick developed a pressure sore, so returned to Hampstead for 6 weeks treatment. There he met Martin Wilde, a fellow paraplegic. Once healed Mick and Martin trained together in wheelchair basketball, through 1982. They became good mates and moved in together, in Stannington Ave, Heathpool. They also partied a lot, mainly at the Melbourne St nightclubs and with the nurses at their quarters at Hampstead. There, Martin met Fran who was studying physiotherapy and whom he would later marry, and Mick met Leah Smyth, a nurse.

In 1983, Mick and Leah spent 12 months in Alice Springs, Leah working in a community programme nursing sick Aboriginal babies and Mick working with the Town Council as Research Project Officer. In his spare time he acquired 10 old wheelchairs and remade them into sports chairs and then got wheelchair basketball started in Alice Springs. They returned to Adelaide in 1984 and married.

Leah continued her work at Hampstead and Mick worked as Activity Supervisor with SA Health at the Hillcrest Hospital in mental health. Mick also re-engaged with his wheelchair basketball colleagues ;Richard Oliver, Martin Wilde, David Gould, Steve Trestrole, Troy Andrews, and Tim Maloney.

Through 1984 he trained and played with them in the State Wheelchair Basketball team. Their training was still at Hampstead, 2 nights a week and the competition to remain in the squad was fierce. The team also played interstate matches and because in those early days of wheelchair sports there was no sponsorship, the team members had to raise their own funds and were billeted out to like minded families. Early 1985, Mick met Rob Turner, an Australian marathon champion who introduced him to wheelchair road racing. Rob had participated in marathons  in America, had done the City to Port and the City to Bay in Adelaide. Mick had been a sprinter in his youth and this new wheelchair sport appealed. They trained 5 days a week after work around the “Uni Loop” which was a 3 km track between the Adelaide Zoo and the Adelaide University and sometimes they trained on the Torrens to the Beach trail.

On weekends they trained on roads around the industrial areas because no one worked there on weekends. They also trained in track racing at the State Olympic Track at Kensington. Road racing  and track racing required a much greater level of fitness than basketball and Rob pushed Mick to the limit. They were doing 15kms a day,3 minutes to the kilometre so 15 kms in 45 mins. Mick was doing 7days race training with Rob Turner and 2 days basketball training with the basketball squad led by Richard Oliver.

January 1986 the Wheelchair National Games were held in Adelaide and Mick was selected for the Australian track team. He then had to choose between that or the Australian basketball team. After some deliberation, he chose the Australian track team which was less political and more about individual competition. He qualified for the World Championship Wheelchair Games to be held in Stoke Mandeville, United Kingdom in July 1986.

Once again he had to raise the funds to go, and he received sponsorship from the Enfield Lions Club, the Paradise Hotel and the Hillcrest hospital. His training intensified.

At the Games in July, Mick won 6 Gold Medals!

• Individual 100 metres, 200 meters, 400 metres, 800 metres.
• 4 x 100m relay, 4 x 400m relay

He also won 2 Bronze Medals,

• 4 x 200 relay
• The marathon, in which he achieved his personal best time of 2hrs and 5 minutes.

On his return to Adelaide, he was invited to participate in “The Big M”, the Melbourne marathon to/from Frankston, a 42.2 kms race. Mick won!

He beat all the able-runners and all the wheelchairs. From his participation in the  World Games and the Big M marathon, Mick was awarded the News/Caltex Sports Star of the Year Award 1986 at a star studded Presentation Event at the Convention Centre in Adelaide.

Mick and Leah were now living at West Lakes and on November 27th 1986 Leah gave birth to Chloe Marie McIntyre at Calvary hospital, with Mick present. Mick’s work continued at Hillcrest Hospital as well as studying for his Residential and Special Care Certificate at TAFE. He continued to train 7 days a week in road and track racing, now in readiness for the 1987 Stoke Mandeville World Championship Wheelchair Games. He now only played basketball socially on Sunday nights.

At this time, he was the fastest wheelchair athlete on track, in Australia. 1987 Stoke Mandeville Games, Mick won

• 3 Gold: the individual 100 metres, 200 metres, 400 metres
• 2 Silver for 4 x100m relay and 4 x 200m relay
• 1 Bronze for the individual 800 metres

During the 10 days of constant training at the Games, there was 1 day set aside for touring. Mick and Rob took a dinghy into the estuary at Oxford, for a quiet day of rowing. Unbeknown to them, the quiet waters led to a gushing flow into the river Thames and their day became a race of strength and might to row back against the flow, back to Oxford.

There was also a race during the Games for the Fastest Man on Wheels, involving the top eight wheelchairs over 100m, in which Mick came 2nd by 300th of a second in a photo finish.

January 1988 the National qualifying Games were held in Perth WA for the Summer Paralympic Games to be held in October 1988 in Seoul,South Korea. 8 weeks prior, Mick developed a pressure sore on his buttock. This was serious. A pressure sore takes 6 weeks to heal and if it becomes infected, it takes 3 months rehabilitation in Hampstead and possible surgery.Unfortunately this is a common occurrence for wheelchair users because below the break in the spine, they have no feeling and pressure sores can develop quickly without notice.

Mick’s upper body was muscle bound and  strong but below his waist, (the spinal break) his buttocks  were skin and bone, and easily chafed against the seat of his chair. The Director of International Wheelchair Sport for Australia at the time, decided Mick was not fit enough for the Seoul Paralympics. Mick had to prove his strength and fitness to the Director, at the qualifying Games in Perth within that 6 weeks. He needed to get stronger  in his arms, chest and wrists. With the help of Leah at home, Mick trained with intensity while trying to allow the pressure sore to heal. He did 100 pushups a day. He used a walking frame with the weight of his arms to move 50metres daily around the back yard. He used weights to strengthen his arms and wrists. In Perth, Mick qualified for the Seoul Paralympics.

By the 1988 Seoul Paralympics, the wheelchair athletes no longer had to raise their own funds to get to the Games.There was more publicity surrounding the Games and hence more sponsorship and more government grants. Mick broke the Australian 100 metre record at the Seoul Paralympics (16.372 secs) and came 7th in the world overall.

Meanwhile, Roweana Jane McIntyre was born 18th April 1988, a young sister for Chloe.

1989 and back from the Olympics, Mick decided he needed to look after his body so he gave up athletics and trained again with the State Wheelchair Basketball team. They trained on weekends only so there was less stress on his lower body and better chance of recovery if any injuries. After a few months training, he was now the fastest wheelchair on court.

Leah and Mick were saving to build their own home. Leah had always had a keen interest in fashion so she improvised by selling clothing in other peoples homes in the evenings while Mick worked during the day. They were able to buy a land and home package in Parafield Gardens. Mick left Hillcrest Hospital as Activities Supervisor and Program Designer and started work with the Paraplegic and Quadriplegic Association of SA as Peer Counsellor and Care Coordinator, 4 1/2 days per week. He was also studying at TAFE Croydon Park for his Residential & Special Care Certificate,1/2 day per week. By this stage, Mick had been 10 years in a wheelchair and he had always said that the most difficult thing for newly disabled people was re-integrating into family and friendship groups, in a wheelchair.

In this new role, he was returning to the Intensive Care Unit of the RAH and the Spinal Unit at Hampstead, this time to mentor patients and help them to adjust to their life-changing injuries and their return to the community, in a wheelchair.

Meanwhile his own family life was in turmoil. He and Leah separated, and Leah left  in1990. She was to remarry and have a daughter Ruby and son Jordan. Mick remained in the house at Parafield Gardens and had various tenants over the next 3 years to help pay the mortgage. He continued his twice weekly wheelchair basketball training at the Hampstead gym and played on weekends with the State Wheelchair Basketball squad in the National  Wheelchair Basketball League. The season went for 6 months with sponsored matches in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide.

1992 Mick met Dallas at the Hampstead gym, where he worked with the patients from the Spinal Unit. Dallas was a support worker for the Paraplegic and Quadriplegic Association (the same Association for whom Mick worked) and she would bring clients from their homes to the gym for weight training sessions. During this time, Mick set up family recreational nights at one of the buildings at Hampstead for families to meet and mingle. Once a week the families met and socialised and had the use of board games, table tennis, snooker tables, tea and coffee facilities.

Late 1992 he and Dallas organised 2 houseboat trips over 4 days at Murray Bridge for some severely disabled patients and their carers, as well as  later on, 30 wheelchairs to the Grand Prix  and Afterparty Concert. March 1993, Dallas moved in with Mick to the house at Parafield Gardens and Mick started a new job with a private company - Professional All Care Services. He remained with them for 12 months, then left for holidays in Queensland with Dallas. 1995  Mick and Dallas married.

For the next 2 years, Mick worked part time at the Thaxted Park Golf Course, working in a maintenance team for the upkeep of the golf course. He also worked part time as Work Access Adviser with Autism Association  of SA and as Vocational Trainer with Interwork Ltd. 1997 Mick started work with Disabilities SA as Options Coordinator and maintained his wheelchair basketball training programme with the Australian Wheelchair Basketball squad.

August 1998, disaster came again. Mick and Dallas had been spending a winter weekend at the Yorke Peninsula bottom end with their friends, Martin and Fran. They were returning to Adelaide together with Chloe 12, and Rowena10 with them in the car. It was a very foggy night and 10 kms from Minlaton, Mick at the last minute noticed the outline of a bull standing across the road, highlighted by the foggy headlights  of the car coming towards them from the opposite direction. Mick veered the car for the front corner on his side of the car to take the brunt of the collision with the bull. The car spun off into the paddock as the oncoming car ran over the dead bull, but didn’t stop. Obviously they couldn’t see what had happened because of the fog. Dallas and the 2 girls were shaken-up and seemingly unharmed but Mick had sustained a severe injury and huge loss of blood. A piece of metal from the car window frame had stabbed him in the top of his head.

Mick had to be cut from the car with the “Jaws of Life” equipment and taken to the Minlaton clinic from whence the Flying Doctor Service took him by helicopter to the Royal Adelaide Hospital. Mick spent a short time at the Royal Adelaide hospital  and was sent home after a few days to recover at home. History will show his release was far too soon. His blood pressure was still too high 230/170 and no XRays had been taken because of the amount of blood loss. He spent the next 6 weeks at home, but his recovery was hampered by his serious continual neck pain and his instantly noticeable loss of short term memory. After the 6 weeks, Mick returned to work. He was under pressure to return because the Team’s job reclassifications were due and there was a chance for permanency in his job. Mick’s loss of short term memory did not go amiss at work but as a Case Manager with Disability SA, his Team understood his needs.He wrote copious notes to assist his memory for his case notes and the Team continuously backed him up.

Mick tried to return to basketball training because he was in the Paralympic Basketball Squad for the Sydney 2000 Paralympics but he couldn’t play because of the neck pain and he couldn’t turn his neck. Late 1999 with no relief from the neck pain, Mick returned to his Spinal Injury Doctor, for X-rays and tests. The MRI showed wedge fractures of his neck (Cervical vertebrae C6 and C7) His tests showed he had Traumatic Brain Injury (physical and neurological), he was also suffering Post Traumatic Stress and Clinical Depression.

Once again, Mick’s life was in turmoil. He had to pull out of the Squad for the Sydney Paralympics and give up basketball. He was taking heavy pain medication, blood pressure tablets and he and Dallas were enduring the  daily consequences of Mick’s short term memory loss. He was suffering anxiety with the depression and panic attacks. It was also a challenging time for Dallas.She had been on IVF and feared Mick’s brain injury could last forever.

For her security she told Mick, she wanted him to transfer the house and car into her name. 2001 Dallas decided for them to take a Pacific Island cruise but that plan was disrupted with a number of Mick’s family taking the opportunity to join them on the cruise. At the end of 2001, Dallas left the relationship and stayed with friends although Mick and Dallas shared the house mortgage repayments, Mick paid for 2001 and Dallas for 2002.

Mick continued to work and was transferred to the Regency Park office of Disability SA. For recreation, he joined the local Pistol Club but left after some months because it wasn’t offering enough physical exercise and away from work, Mick was not coping well. Chloe was now 16 and Rowena 14, they lived half time with Mick and half time with their mother Leah. The girls found their time with Mick was depressive; Mick was struggling to cope with his own issues of depression, anxiety, lethargy and loss of confidence and as well, he couldn’t manage the quality of lifestyle that 2 teenage girls required. The girls left to live full time with their mother.

Mick was also dealing with chronic vascular disease and had developed an abdominal aortic aneurysm - a 4cm blockage of the aorta, the main blood vessel of the heart which takes the oxygenated blood to the blood vessels around the body. Without proper blood flow to his legs, he suffers chronic severe foot ulcers.Mick returned to Hampstead for rehabilitation. His bodily functions were not working. Mick spent 43 days in rehabilitation at Hampstead, with the nursing staff trying to heal the ulcers, after which time the Spinal Rehab Director, Dr Ruth Marshall  referred Mick to the RAH for amputation of his right foot. The RAH Vascular Surgeon said No, for which Mick was truly grateful.

Mick needed his right foot. He still drove his car, which gave him his independence. Although he used portable hand controls, he rested his right foot against the accelerator, and had trained himself over the years to push his right knee down to operate the accelerator. The surgeon suggested Mick return home and a nurse from RDNS was organised to visit Mick daily to dress the wounds. This recovery is a long, tedious and ongoing process. During this time at Hampstead, Dallas’s father served divorce papers to Mick.

2004 Mick lost his home. He was forced by Dallas’s lawyer to leave the house at Lavender Drive,Parafield Gardens after 15 years (1989 - 2004). He was proud of the improvements that had been done - new car shed, extensive paving, slate though the living area, and new gardens. Mick despairingly moved out of his home and rented at Northfield. It was a traumatic process and he felt as though he had lost everything - his wife, access to his children, his health, his sport and his home. Mick was again single and felt he had nothing to offer. He took a year off from work to heal.

2005 Mick celebrated his 50th birthday with family and close friends. He was recovering slowly and his depression, anxiety and memory loss were still greatly evident. His long service leave and sick leave had finished so he returned to his work as Case Manager with Disability SA at Regency Park and embraced his work. It wasn’t until 2006 that Mick himself felt that his mental health was starting to mend and that he could adjust to his brain injury.

From 2006-2010 he was involved with work programmes - the Mens Shed at Parks Community Centre, the Man Alive programme, NADOIC events and Close the Gap events. 2010 Mick took up paddling at West Lakes. He became a member of Canoe SA  and learnt to paddle in a kayak over the next 2 years with an able-bodied coach. He was then invited  to participate with the West Lakes Canoe Club in their time trial events, with laps through 6kms, 12kms and 18kms. He also trained for the Paralympic events with races of 200m ,500m and 1,000m. He was the first paraplegic to take the sport up seriously and trained twice a week.

It was tough  because he not only paddled in a plastic racing boat with a high wooden seat but he had to fight the weather, which at times blew a gale across the wide expanse of waters at West Lakes and caused large waves which could tip the kayak. On race days, his able-bodied team mates would lift him from the wheelchair which he parked at the waters edge and lift him into the kayak. He had to stay in the kayak because he couldn’t swim, a fact not known by many of his team mates.

Eventually a second paraplegic joined the paddling group who was an upholsterer. He padded the internal edges and lowered the seat of the kayak for Mick which made it easier for him to stay balanced. Mick became quite proficient at paddling so then he also participated in paddling competitions up the River Murray and on the June long weekends, they had marathons of 35kms, 50kms and 100kms races over the 3 days. He also participated in the 200 kms relay race. Mick had also learnt how to fall into the water, to stay calm and not panic and to wait for an able-bodied paddler to come for assistance.

2012 Mick went with the West Lakes Canoe Club to Perth to participate in the National competitions and then in 2013 to Sydney. These were the trials for the 2016 Olympics and Paralympics to be held in Rio de Janeiro.

2015 The Masters Games for all sports were held in Adelaide. At West Lakes they held the paddling competitions for all able-bodied and paraplegic participants. Mick won

• 4 gold medals : the 200m, 500m, 1000m and the 12 kms races.

By this time his daughters were settled in their own lives. Rachel, who was living in Melbourne had married Daniel Moss and they had 3 children, Lachlan, Brock and Isabella. Chloe had married Brad Nicholson in Adelaide and Rowena was working in Queensland.

2017 Mick had just returned from competing in the 200km relay on the River Murray over the June long weekend.

July 1st, he went to the Greenacres Shopping Centre which was undergoing some external modifications with the car parking zones and walkways. Mick wheeled down the safety ramp and his wheelchair hit a narrow 20cm  trench at the base, where a row of paving had been removed. There was no signage to show ongoing repair work in that section and the front wheel of the wheelchair got caught in the trench. Mick was thrown through the air, landing with his left leg twisted under him. He was rushed by ambulance to the RAH, and had X-rays taken which showed two breaks in the left femur (thigh bone)  The femur is one of the strongest bones of the body and to have two breaks is a serious and painful injury. He was operated on immediately with rods, plate and screws inserted from hip to knee to support the bone.

Mick underwent 2 months painful rehabilitation at the Modbury hospital. The result of the operation meant that Mick was not able to bend his left knee. During rehab and after discharge, Mick worked furiously on his left knee to coax it to bend so he could move readily around his home, drive his car and resume paddling, which he did in 2018. Although he couldn’t bend his knee very far, he was able to fly to Perth with the team to participate in the National Paddling Competitions for the 200m, 500m, and 1000m races.

On the return trip from Perth, Mick became delirious on the plane and on arrival in Adelaide he was rushed to the RAH with septicaemia. The plate and rods were removed from his left leg as it was feared that they were the source of the infection. Nine days of intense treatment followed. Mick never fully recovered from that operation because his left leg was now too weak to hold his weight, (which he could do before  because he’d maintained some feeling in his upper quad muscles) and the pain in his knee was constant. His movements were now limited and there was weight bearing no more.

Mick then underwent another operation to open up the femal arteries to increase the blood flow to his lower legs and feet, to try to heal the chronic ulcers. The operation was successful because the doctors could feel the blood pulse in his feet, not felt since 2004.Mick was then instructed to stop paddling because the Vascular Specialists  were concerned about the bugs in the West Lakes water and the health of Mick’s legs. Mid 2018, Mick’s work group was transferred  from Regency Park to the Gilles Plains office of Disability SA. The offices of Salisbury, Elizabeth and Regency Park were closing because Disability SA was being taken over by the Federally funded NDIA - National Disability Insurance Agency. The NDIA scheme was to develop the plans for disabled people nationally.

June 21st 2019 Disability SA was shut down and Mick retired. July 1st 2020 Mick started work - 10 1/2 hrs per week with NGANANA - the Aboriginal Disability Support Agency. 2020/2021 there was the global Covid epidemic and Micks activities with NGANANA continued because he was classed an essential worker.

2022 Mick had another operation, this time at the Lyell McEwen hospital, to put a stent in his urita ( the tube between the kidney and bladder) because he had once again developed kidney stones. The ultrasound also showed his Aortic Aneurysm to be 5.7cm which had grown from 4cm in 2017.

He  had also developed a severe ulcer on his right foot. The vascular surgeon was concerned and XRays were taken which showed a blockage in his right upper leg. Two choices were given - another operation or attempt to self heal. Mick has chosen to self heal for the while.

His fitness is also a priority. His paddling days are still achievable with good foot health and for summer paddling, and he is awaiting a Stricker Lipo Hybrid attachment for his wheelchair to renew an exercise regime from home.

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