A man from Bolton who was left partially paralysed after a friend shot him in the head with an air rifle nearly two decades ago has just won his first cycling medal, and is now planning to ride from Land’s End to John O’Groats.
Danny Walmsley, now aged 32, spent weeks in a critical condition in hospital at the age of 14 when a prank by a teenage friend went wrong and he was shot at point-blank range, reports the Bolton News.
The partial paralysis that he suffered in the incident meant that his childhood dreams of playing rugby league professionally failed to come to anything.
Instead, unable to participate in sport and suffering from poor memory as a result of the pellet lodged in his brain, he left school with no qualifications and began working as a labourer.
Danny, who has been encouraged in his rehabilitation by his girlfriend Donna, took up cycling four years ago.
Last weekend, he was part of the Lancashire Road Club squad which carried off the team prize in The Rake Hill Climb at Ramsbottom, on a course that plays host to the National Hill Climb next year.
He finished the 947-yard climb in a time of 3 minutes 16.9 seconds, in between the times posted by his team mates John Bamford and Steve Horrocks.
Danny, who nowadays studies sports science at Leeds University’s Keighley Campus, said: “I have been working hard at cycling, but I never thought we would win something. I am absolutely buzzing.
“Since my accident, I have never felt able to take part in sporting activities, although before it happened I loved sport. It is an amazing feeling, something I did not believe I would ever experience.
“I never recovered completely from what happened, but I have tried to make the best of my life.
"My rehabilitation goes on.”
Danny’s story inevitably evokes thoughts of Greg LeMond, seriously injured in a shooting accident in 1988 who returned to win his second Tour de France title the following year from Laurent Fignon by what remains the closest ever margin of victory in the race, and highlights the role that sport – at whatever level – can play in rehabilitation.
He is now aiming to ride from Land’s End to John O’Groats with the aim of raising funds for the charity, Sands UK which aims to provide support to those, like his girlfriend Donna, who have lost a baby during pregnancy.
Looks more like it is designed to keep the bike thieves in rather than out. That might in fact be a better solution.
Shimano were castigated for not bringing on new factories to meet pandemic demand, thus gumming up the supply chain. Their argument at the time was...
I figured out a reason of that squeaking noise. I have xpresso 2 and 7, and also xpro 10 pedals, and that squeaking isn't present only at Xpresso 2...
There’s one other big reason we’re not going to fly to launches from now on: the world IS in the middle of a man-made climate emergency so taking...
Italian tourist and pussycat in Portugal.
Am I the only one who thinks the brake levers look awful too?
Yep, it's official - reds under the, er, bonnet...
Indeed, I was drawing from personal experience – I don't use it that often but it's such a nice bit of infrastructure that I sometimes go out of my...
Except socialism doesn't work like that in real life. It's the capitals countries that try to look after those in need, and the average person's...
It's the mass that's the issue. Two people on a petrol powered scooter can really mess up a cyclist. Also the fact so many of the petrol scooters...