Australia Day honours: Elite athlete’s journey inspires

An Olympic gold medallist from Footscray has one more medal after Sunday.

Josh Hose was honoured with an OAM on Australia Day for his service to sport at the London 2012 Paralympic Games.

The wheelchair rugby player (showing his Games gold medal) hopes his path will highlight difficulties faced by about 12,000 Australians who cannot walk due to a spinal cord injury.

In 2005, Hose was celebrating Australia Day on a road trip to Port Campbell with mates. On the way, a friend’s car rolled down an embankment and landed on top of him.

Hose speaks about his journey and life as an elite athlete with a disability, in his role as a motivational speaker for Independence Australia. On November 16, Victorians are being encouraged to make their steps count in an Independence Australia initiative called Steps for Independence.

» stepsforindependence.com.au