her time out
The right track After a near-death experience, one keen rider is better than back to normal
A KEEN RECREATIONAL CYCLIST, Sue Reid often ventured out on the Coromandel roads with her colleagues. It was simply a hobby that she loved alongside her rewarding career as a leading veterinarian in Thames. A fall from her bicycle in December 2003 threatened to wreck
both of these passions. While riding with friends along the Coromandel coast road, Sue's bike fell down the hillside, fracturing her T-12 vertebra and leaving her paralysed from the waist down. But sheer determination and bloody-mindedness saw her back at the veterinary practice three months later. Sue had been working as a vet for 19 years at the time of the
accident and found it extremely hard to be a patient, yearning for a sense of normality. "After such a long time as a vet, being the caretaker, I hated the role reversal of being looked after. It was a horrible sensation and I wanted to prove I was still useful – that I
could still be a good vet and take care of the animals. "When I first returned to the practice I had to deal with funny
looks and people who thought a vet in a wheelchair was a novelty. I felt like I had to prove myself as a surgeon all over again. But I think my clients have gotten past that now. And anyway, the animals don't care either way!" One of her old cycling buddies introduced Sue to hand cycling
18 months after the accident. "It just added to that sense of normality – despite my injury I was still doing the same things I'd done before," she explains. But she was doing the same things, only better! Following a Taupo cycling event, Sue realised that she was faster
than several, more experienced hand cyclists and started thinking about competing. At the SUB Ride event in Cambridge, she was approached by Paralympics NZ about competing in hand cycling.
"They say if you fall off a horse
you should get straight back on. I've kind of done that. Except I didn't just get back on it. I'm back in the saddle and now in training for the Melbourne Cup!"
122 | December/January 2012 | HER MAGAZINE
