THE fact Kiel Bigeni can walk, let alone run is quite an achievement.
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Eleven years ago he was told he may never walk again after he rolled a truck one slippery morning out near Wauchope.
His right leg was wedged in the right side door for four hours and the prospect of losing it entirely was raised as a possibility once emergency services arrived.
“The doctors said I was possibly going to lose my leg and even if I didn’t, I’d be limited with what I was going to be able to do,” he said.
“There was no guarantee I was definitely going to be able to walk, run or surf.
“The value of how good life was going to be could have been a problem too because they said don’t expect much out of it.
The doctors said I was possibly going to lose my leg and even if I didn’t, I’d be limited with what I was going to be able to do.
- Kiel Bigeni
“I was losing that much blood they were just going to chop it to get me out of the car.”
Even after being freed from the wreckage, Bigeni underwent a staggering 15 surgeries as a result of the damage to his leg.
“They said if it got infected that bad I could wake up and it might be gone anyway,” he said.
“And then once everything was healed, there was still the risk it might not have been any good to use anyway and it might have been an option to cut it off down the track.”
The 30-year-old said he had only had his license for a matter of weeks at the time and the news he may never walk again “rattled” him.”
“I was a pretty active kid and was fairly energised so I never really sat down,” he said.
“The biggest challenge was getting over the actual look of it.
“Also being able to do the day to day things and not getting depressed about it was a pretty big challenge.
“Each thing I did I had to find out a new way to do it with the leg I have now.”
The biggest challenge was getting over the actual look of it.
- Kiel Bigeni
Eleven years on, Bigeni will attempt to complete Port Macquarie Running Festival’s Treble Breakwall Buster this Sunday.
It consists of a 21-kilometre marathon, 10-kilometre run and then five-kilometre fun run to finish things off.
He has competed in Ironman events previously, but has never done 36 kilometres in the one day.
“The key to it all is do the one you want a PB in and then keep moving and don’t stop,” he said.
“I think a marathon would be easier because you’re not stopping, so I think each time you do stop, you need to keep moving just so you get through it.
“I’ll aim for a PB in the half and then grovel my way through the 10 and the five as best I can.”