10 Activities in 12 Hours Challenge

Hi, my name is Thérèse Mitchell.

I had an accident in April 1992 and during one of the operations to reconstruct my knee unfortunately infection managed to find its way into my Tibia/Knee and after four and half years and many operations we eventually managed to eradicate the infection and I continued on with my life, went back to work, had four children and pursued most of the sports I enjoyed even though I had a very unstable knee.

In 2016 it was decided that I would need a replacement knee. Everything went well but I still had horrendous pain in my knee and after numerous operations to resolve the situation infection again raised its ugly head with a Septic infection. I was on long term IV antibiotics and really very unwell with infection starting to win the battle and we came to a point where we were running out of options and time. I felt I had let down my surgeons at the time Iain ( Orthopaedics) and Kaz ( Plastics) after the amazing surgery they had already performed but amputation was the option which offered the best chance of being rid of infection, pain and hopefully be eventually able to enjoy my favourite sports and possibly some new ones but most importantly get back to as normal a life as possible.

  After over 40+ operations I had my Above Knee Amputation on 8th January 2020. Everything was going according to plan and I was well ahead of schedule and then Covid19/Lockdown came along March 2020 and unfortunately the Prosthetics Department had to shut down and were not able to see to any patients. I was due to have my socket changed as it was already too big but it was to be another 20 weeks until I managed to get the socket replaced which unknowingly had caused some serious damage to my Residual Limb (Stump!).

 I persevered trying to make the new leg work but I was only able to wear it for decreasing amounts of time until the decision was made on 4th March 2021 that I had to stop wearing the leg and return to the wheelchair for what was thought hopefully only a few weeks to allow the Residual Limb to recover but unfortunately has now been over 10 months.

Covid 19 has caused lots of issues and a serious backlog within the NHS to resolve the problem so I decided I needed to make the most of a very bad situation and start to pursue sport one legged.

I am very active and Cycle outdoors, Spinning, Row Indoors, Gym Circuits, Swimming, Wheelchair Basketball, Sitting Volleyball, Indoor Climbing, Pilates and last but not least Pistol Shooting Competitively all weekly/fortnightly so I decided to set myself a challenge and do all 10 activities each for a 1 hour session within a total time frame of 12 hours.

This will be a tough challenge as I will have very little time to rest and fuel up and also especially as this will all be completed with only one leg as I do not have my replacement prosthetic leg yet.

 

I would really appreciate your support to help me raise money for these three groups which are very close to my heart and which have been a great help to me with my recovery.

 

 

Live Life Aberdeenshire are allowing me to use their facility at the Deveron Centre, Banff, AB45 1BY on Friday 14th January 2022 to complete all 10 activities and also raise awareness that these are just some of the sports that you can take part in.......... even with only one leg!!!! I hope I can encourage other people to give sport a try.

 

I have a number of people to thank for helping me to get this far and for help on the day.

 

Donald Fraser & Brian Bruce & the staff at the Deveron Centre.

Rosie & Emily Mitchell- My daughters who will be my helpers on the day.

Gary Morrison- Shire Massage Therapy.

Jack Eyers- Personal Trainer.

Alison Shaw- Scottish Disability Sport.

Michelle Ord- NHS Physio/Pilates Instructor.

Katriona Campbell-NHS Prosthetist 
The Live Life Aberdeenshire team -Turriff Pool/Sports Centre.

Kirsty Smith- Aberdeen Flyers Wheelchair Basketball.

Mark Joyce / Sonal Ramendra STS Shooting Coaches.

Jodie Smith- Aurora Bike Repair.

Joe Brice- Transition Extreme Climbing Instructor.

Corrie Findlay- Fellow Climbing partner.

Tim Phipps- Stitch It & Fix It- ‘Sticky Stump Boot’ Climbing guard inventor.

Martyn Johnson-Scottish Volleyball Association.

Steve Henderson- Long suffering GP

Paddy Ashcroft- Ortho Surgeon- For cutting my leg off! ( Ironically Paddy did my 1st and 41st Operations)

Last but not least my family.... especially my Hubby.