Gorilla man Lee Warn readies for the start of the Kerikeri half-marathon. Photo / Ron Burgin
Comeback triumph
In October of 1989 Lee Warn was involved in a scooter accident that changed his life forever - but not in the way you would expect.
Then 16, he was thrown from his Nifty Fifty scooter, broke his back and has been wheelchair-bound since.
But that doesn't even begin to tell his tale, which is one of life's great overcoming-the-odds stories.
"My life changed for the better after my injury," said Warn, 39, of Auckland. "It was truly one of the best things to happen to me, it just took a few years for me to understand that."
Since taking up sporting pursuits in 2000 Warn has achieved a list of goals that makes for impressive reading even for an able-bodied athlete.
He has done ultra-marathons, numerous Round the Bays (often in costume), Sky Tower climbs (without the chair), he has sky-dived, bungy-jumped, rap jumped and got involved in rock climbing, archery, curling and fishing. He is also a national rep in track and field. He is now a motivational speaker, a multisport athlete and a marriage celebrant.
"I didn't think much about the future [at 16] I guess but I know that there is no way that I would have achieved what I have. I am proud of the list of achievements I have recorded over the past 13 years. It has been really rewarding."
This year he completed the Tough Guy and Gal Challenge in Auckland.
Overcoming challenges has become commonplace for Warn, who has an infectious attitude.
He says disabled people have to battle every day and that has been his life for the past 23 years.
"Getting up in the morning is a challenge, having a shower is a challenge ... all of the mundane day-to-day tasks that you take for granted when you are an able-bodied person are really difficult when you are disabled. You have to be really tough to overcome that.
"I have learned over time how to see the positives and focus on what I can achieve and all the things that I can't. I don't like being told what I can't do. That just motivates me to want to do it more."
Beating the tumour
On May 2, 2011, Brendan Brier woke up at 2am to intense headaches and relentless vomiting. It had passed by 7am but he saw the doctor anyway. He was prescribed paracetamol and told it was cluster headaches. But the headaches kept returning early in the morning and Brier went back to the doctors a week later.
"Another interesting symptom was that I couldn't back a trailer. Now I don't mean to boast but I'm a legendary trailer backer," remembered the 35-year-old Hamiltonian.
He was referred to a specialist and on May 13 was diagnosed with a brain tumour. The next Monday Brier was in hospital and went under the knife on the Wednesday. He spent nine days in recovery and a month of sleeping twice a day for an hour. Six weeks of radiotherapy and chemotherapy came next. The chemotherapy continued until January this year.
It was the hardest time of his life.
"I have now had three clear MRIs and have been allowed to drive," said Brier triumphantly.
"They usually don't let people with brain tumours drive for three years, so it's a small coup."
Sport has played a big part in his recovery. He has built up from a 20-minute walk to running 8km in the Taupo Great Lake Relay with his family. He progressed to completing three cycle races; Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge, The Rev and Le Race.
On Queen's Birthday weekend he took on the 50km premier multisport title race at the 3D Multisport Festival and has the goal to complete a Coast to Coast in the future.
One of the key lessons from his hardship, he says, is you can never underplay the role of family and friends. "These are the people that hold your hand in the hour of need. This experience has been big and their support has been invaluable, such as providing accommodation to a little brother for six months and driving services for 16 months.
"The material goals are no longer the priority that they once were. Having goals to achieve is fantastic but the journey is more important."
It has been hugely rewarding for Brier to exercise at a similar level to what he could pre-cancer.
"My recovery started with walking down the street and slowly building up to running 8km. Hitting the road for a bike ride, going for a run or heading for a paddle is a privilege and a highlight of my day."
Swimming off the pain
These days Ali Finnegan doesn't take life, or exercising, for granted.
The Waitoki office administrator, mother of two and lifelong horse enthusiast was seriously injured in November last year in a riding fall.
"I was riding a borrowed horse and was bucked off, concussed, and found out a few days later that I had cracked my T1 vertebrae," remembers the 44-year-old. "After several visits [to the chiropractor] and my back continuously going out I figured it was not going to work without something else to complement it."
Now, one year on, Finnegan credits swimming for her full recovery. She has registered for three events in the State New Zealand Ocean Swim Series over the summer.
Accompanying her children to swim training at Silverdale's Northern Arena was just the inspiration Finnegan needed.
"I had a chat to them about swimming and whether they felt it would be okay for me to do. That was January 31 and I haven't stopped since.
"It didn't take long before the muscles were less stressed but mainly that my shoulder stopped dislocating," she says. "It was lovely ... It almost made me feel weightless, which was wonderful when I was normally in continuous pain."
Taking heart in life
Graeme Joyes has been given a second chance at life and he is determined to make the most of it. The feeling of being supported home by the locals at the Taupo Half Marathon (21.1km) walk in August beside wife Heather and daughter Wendy was surreal.
Joyes got home in just over four hours and it was a long way from where he has been.
Two years ago the radio station manager had a Father's Day lunch he will never forget. He had a heart attack and knew exactly what it was because he had recently done radio programmes on heart attacks.
"It was like an elephant kneeling on my chest combined with a huge hot flush," recalled the 59-year-old from Wellington.
Luckily for Joyes the Wellington Free Ambulance rescue vehicle was parked down the road. An angiogram the next day in Wellington Hospital revealed a serious defect that caused the potentially fatal heart attack.
Joyes says the doctor was frank and excellent. "He calmly explained the next attack would be instantly fatal, I would not survive. Hence I had a quadruple bypass, on my 58th birthday. And just to top it off, I had my gall bladder out exactly one year later on my 59th birthday." He keeps the 2cm gall stone in a bottle.
But Joyes doesn't need much reminding of the second chances he has been given. These days he is far more conscious of his diet and he tries to walk every day. "I never have a bad day, every day is a good day, some are better than others," he says.
"I can't be bothered with twaddle. And if the lawns need mowing I don't care." People who survive a big health scare often talk about feeling as if they have taken life for granted. It's something that Joyes relates to.
"It has changed me. It's hard to define. I spent a night working through the fact I could die that night. That didn't worry me, what did worry me was Heather didn't know where the life insurance policy was in the filing cabinet. It did screw with my brain for a while. Other people have heart attacks ... not me. Then I look at the scars and that motivates me to keep up the exercise. If the New Zealand taxpayers have spent this much on me, I need to do my bit."
Right at the start Joyes decided the medical stuff was outside his control "but I could do everything about my attitude ... [and] the support of Heather, my family and friends was absolutely vital".
He now has renewed goals for his fitness. "Walking is more than exercise. I enjoy the sights and smells. I stop and talk to people. Sometimes I get home from a 15km walk tired but with a sense of enjoying life."
Loving the water
Mike Townsend is swimming from the heart. The 67-year-old university professor from Auckland has entered all six events of the 2013 -2014 State New Zealand Ocean Swim Series despite having had heart surgery in June.
Even though his doctor told him he needed to stay out of the water for at least three months, Townsend was determined to do this season's swims.
"I love ocean swimming," says Townsend. "It's a way to give me something to aim for."
While most would have shied away from physical activity after such an operation, Townsend says he finds comfort being in the water. "I should have been a fish or had gills. I don't know why, but I've always felt so comfortable swimming."
He recalls his first swim in the national series many years ago was the Auckland Harbour Crossing and acknowledges the 2.9km swim is a real challenge. "I was never afraid of the water but it was good to see the finish line coming up; it always is.
"I'll take it as it comes. I hope that I've got some swimming skills left. But no, I'm confident I can swim whatever distance."
Solace in paddling
Karin Horen was only 26 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer for the first time. The Auckland woman, who had lost her mother only a year earlier, had to face the challenge of saving her own life.
"I am one of the lucky ones," says the now 40-year-old.
"I was one of those women who felt something was wrong and made it to the doctor on time. He said, 'you are so young, it's probably nothing'. But an ultrasound showed beyond doubt that it was breast cancer."
From that moment she entered a new world. For the next year while her friends were out partying she endured the rigours of chemotherapy and radiation. "I always hoped, and never stopped to ask the question ... why me? I researched, read, asked questions, admired my scalp and embraced my hair loss, and the fact that I lost almost half of my breast.
"At 26 when all my girlfriends wore bikinis on the beach and open dresses, I had radiation drawings on my body and went to hospital every couple of weeks for treatment which made me sick as a dog.
"I wanted to continue my life just the way it was, and not stop for a second. That is the way I felt. I was desperate to win."
Horen did win and five years later she got the all-clear. She went for a reconstruction. "I felt I got my femininity back. Strange how these little things ... can rebuild your confidence as a woman. But ... in my memories and my soul there is a scar."
Almost three years ago she was introduced by her partner, Manu, to stand-up paddle boarding. "The first time I got on a board I could just feel my body floating on the water, relaxed and calm as I paddled away into the ocean. I stood firm and allowed myself to be carried away.
"It's that kind of sport where you can just drift away, or race like a warrior. I realised what I could get from it, and I have been paddling ever since. When I want to get away, I can just ride slowly to the distance, and when I want to get the real fitness out of it I paddle hard. The fighter in me gets out. It's a great feeling."
In 2011 she created the Starboard Paddle for Hope and the third annual event was this year in Auckland.
The winner was Auckland’s 12th goal after the 70-minute mark, half their haul this season.