You have run out of motivational material for your pre-match
talk? Huddles, 110%, they beat you last time so…, why not take a leaf out of
Stuart Lancaster’s personal book of inspiration and tell your players about
Henry Fraser, a 22 year old who is a tetraplegic.
Henry was in the Saracens academy at 17 years old, but a
tragic dive into the sea whilst on, met with a sandbank and a broken spinal cord. When he
finally made enough progress in hospital to get into a wheelchair, he saw himself
for the first time in a mirror; a boy, he couldn’t breathe without help, four
stone lighter, he decided at that time that life could not get any worse, only
better and his optimism has led him to a decent amount of recovery. Henry doesn’t
feel sorry for himself, he says he has no need to be angry and “apart from not
being able to move on my own, nothing much has changed!”
Once independent, blazing his own trail and self-driven, he now realises the
importance of "the team" and he has come to appreciate the bonding and need for
others’ support. Henry is now able to work with the Saracens club, in
communications, and his spirits have been raised even higher by the news this
week of Geoffrey Raisman’s UK Stem Cell
Foundation-www.ukscf.org Maybe there is more progress ahead for him and others.
Henry now gives inspirational talks to sporting groups and
his phrases are lining rugby dressing rooms over the country. www.henryfraser.org will lead you to his Trust.
No comments:
Post a Comment