10 Years ago

By Graeme Woolf

Today marks a milestone for me. June 16th 2015 was a chilly, sunny Hawke’s Bay morning. We were newish parents to Leo who was 9 months old and life was pretty good. 

On that morning I was riding my little moped to work, just like every morning, when my life changed in an instant. A lady in her brand new red Mini didn’t see me coming and turned right in front of me. I had a split second when I knew exactly what was going to happen but there was nothing I could do about it. It’s like the next 5 seconds were slow motion. 

I hit the side of her car and remember seeing the sky as I flipped over the top. My life was saved by landing on my feet at a 45 degree angle before crumbling onto the road. I remember the whole thing like it was last week.

I knew I was sore and that my legs weren’t right, but saw my phone on the road. When I reached out to get it someone appeared out of nowhere and told me not to move. That’s when I clicked that others had seen this unfold too. Next thing a policeman & 2 ambulances had arrived and I was being tended to.

I wanted to tell Mal. That was my thought when I reached for my phone. In the ambulance I tried calling her but she didn’t answer. On brand for Mal. So I called Cara, her sister, and told her what happened. She drove to our house and told Mal. She called me back when I was on my way to hospital and arrived soon after. 

After only 6 days in hospital, I was discharged with a broken left leg, a sprained right leg, a suspected broken left wrist and some bumps and bruises. This necessitated me being in an electric wheelchair for 6 weeks, whilst also gradually putting more and more weight on my legs and learning to walk again.  I went back to work part time after 4 weeks and full time after about 4 months.

Twelve days after my accident, we found out we were pregnant with Phoebe. If I had landed on the road differently that day and died, I would not have met Phoebe. I catch myself staring at her often, even still now, thinking about that. 

Most days now, I’m in pain, mostly in my left ankle, which they missed fixing at the time because they saw the broken leg and slapped a cast on. My broken left ankle underneath the cast never got fixed until 18 months later, which was too late to fix it properly. So that’s going to give me grief for the rest of my life.

Ever since that day I’ve been determined to prove to myself that this wasn’t going to stop me from living life.  Over the last 10 years I’ve undertaken a number of personal challenges including completing all 6 events in the Hawke’s Bay Trail Run Series in 2019, the Taupo half marathon, 2 Cape Kidnappers 15km Trail Runs, a 30km Mountain Bike Race and a 415 day streak of at least 30 minutes walking or riding every day.  And for the past 3 years, I’ve started playing cricket again, which is particularly hard on the body. 

One thing I’ve learned is that life is for living. Keep moving, keep getting up, don’t let my body stop me from doing stuff. No one is going to do that for me, but at the same time, no one else knows how hard some things are for me. 

I’m fortunate to have been given another chance and that I get to be a Husband & Dad to this little crew here at home. I’m just a shy little boy from Nelson who was lucky to live through what happened and hope to be around for many years yet! 

Follow  Graeme on Twitter