Julie Nykiel Rebound Fund
Donation protected
Thank you Boti Nagy for your story below
http://www.botinagy.com/blog/time-to-rally-for-fallen-opals-superstar-/
See link below for Julie Nykiel AOM
https://australia.basketball/blog/hall_of_fame/julie-nykiel-oam/
Please click on Julie's video for a full description of her setbacks in life.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eF58Pfe-2Hg
Just for comfort for all donors, all fund received are transferred into a bank account administered by Helen Buvinic, Louise Byer and Leanne Mickan-Winter. The account requires at least two of the three to withdraw or transfer funds. We have worked with Julie to set up a cash flow to cover her immediate and future needs and funds will be dispersed to Julie to ensure that she can cover her commitments going forward.
Ken Cole speaks out on Julie Nykiel OAM
JULIE NYKIEL’S 25 YEAR SENTENCE!
It all started with an ankle injury in 1988. Minimized at the time and coerced to work through it in that Olympic year, led to subsequent knee injuries. Now 25 years later Julie has suffered in silence and is still trying to overcome multiple surgeries, depression and a continued need for ongoing medical treatments that she simply cannot afford. No-one can give Julie back her 25 years but we can help her quality of life moving forward. Please watch Ken’s brief video to hear what happened to Julie and find out how you can help.
I want to talk about one of the greats of Australian women’s sport, representing South Australia in Basketball and Netball, and Australia in Basketball.
Julie was a dual Olympian and played for Australia for 10 years. Julie was an outstanding player for SA for more than a decade, won every award available, scoring a record 53 points in one game.
Julie won a number of MVP awards, in both SA and Australia and is just an outstanding talent
Julie some time ago was selected on the all-time women’s WNBL Australian team
South Australia and Australia can’t have too many better players than Julie has been in her career.
What has happened to Julie since then, has been an absolute travesty and I need to get this message out toas many as my basketball and sporting friends
What’s gone wrong is beyond comprehension, beyond sad, and started towards the latter part of her career in 1988 and then on it was a battle!. A lot of the partial misdiagnosis of how serious things were, a lot of athletes have been through this. Following a bike accident in which Julie broke nearly every bone in her face, she worked hard and came back.
1993 Julie went to have some serious work done on her knee which had already been badly damaged over the years. Shortly after the major knee operation, the knee collapsed and this started a chain of events that continued on for 20 years. Her whole life totally turned upside down after the operation. Her knee virtually crippled her and one leg was 1 ½ inches shorter than the other. Julie was prescribed 12-14 different types of medication. She is now down to 2-33-4 tablets per day.
During this time, Julie struggled emotionally, and withdrew from normal life and only had contact with some very close friends.
What we now need to do is help Julie by a fundraising for Julie so we are starting with this Gofund Me. For a person who was one of the top players in this country for 20 years and represented our country for 10 years and has suffered for over 25 years and it’s not right. We have to try to fix this.
This has been put together by a group of Julie’s friends who want to spread the works, so I want everybody who has been involved in sport to get behind Julie and hope everybody can spare a little bit for Julie.
I have never asked for anything, but If you have business friends then please ask them to donate to Julie to fund ongoing treatment when she needs it, provide transport, remain healthy and become confident to go out and mix with other people and just live from day to day.
We need to help this lady for the balance of her life, which needs to give her quality of life from hereon through. Let’s get together and tell all of our friends to get behind this.
Fundraising team: Julie Nykiel team (6)
Helen Buvinic
Organizer
Woodville Park, SA
Julie Nykiel
Beneficiary
Pat Mickan
Team member
Louise Byer
Team member
Leanne Mickan-Winter
Team member
Jenny Cheesman
Team member