A good decade ago, I heard my husband yell for me to come and watch the telly. When I did, I saw a guy being interviewed. I heard the lady ask him what he found the most annoying in his life. He answered that when his children were being fed. How the noise that they made with their plates, knives and forks really got on his nerves. That he had to leave the room to calm down. Now then, that was something I found very familiar indeed. Because after my brain injury I used to find that annoying when I was eating with Paul. Which was of course, all the time!
I asked Paul who the guy was and he said it was James Cracknell. I’d never heard of him so I looked him up on Wikipedia.
James Cracknell.
Quite an athlete.
He started rowing and got to the level that he won many races with Steve Redgrave. He won two gold Olympic medals with him!
He then moved onto running. As you do. He ran marathons with some real success and also began completing triathlons.
He then moved onto cycling. As – of course – you do. It was mainly ultra competitions, those in arctic climates and long distances. He did pretty well in those too.
A multitalented athlete.
On 20th July 2010, Cracknell was cycle training in Arizona and hit from behind by a petrol tanker.
The back of his head was hit, causing damage to the frontal lobes of his brain – like me
He developed epilepsy – like me
He lost sense of smell and taste – I lost smell
He says that without his helmet he would have died outright.
James and his wife Bev Turner wrote a book called Touching Distance. I read it and related to him on so many levels that I couldn’t believe it. It was the first time that somebody was speaking about changes in life that I had experienced. It was such an enormous relief.
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