A FOOTSCRAY sports star is urging people to get behind a new campaign supporting Australians with spinal cord injuries.
Josh Hose, still on a high after snaring a wheelchair rugby gold medal at the London Paralympics, hopes his inspirational path to Olympic glory will highlight the difficulties faced by about 12,000 Australians who cannot walk due to a spinal cord injury.
Hose helped Australia to second place at the 2010 World Championships and to gold in London, where the team was undefeated.
“I don’t know if it has a hundred per cent sunk in,” he said. “But I’m very satisfied with what I’ve done.”
Hose made his national debut in 2009 after being inspired to take up the sport when he watched matches at the 2008 Summer Paralympics.
Hose was left with serious injuries after a serious car crash in 2005 after finishing high school. Celebrating Australia Day with mates, tragedy struck on a road trip to Port Campbell. “We never made it there. On the way my mate lost control of the car, it rolled down a 20-foot embankment and the roof collapsed on top of me.”
The accident left Hose with a dislocated vertebra in his neck and incomplete quadriplegia.
“I spent the next three years undergoing intensive rehabilitation to regain my independence and get my life back on track,” he said.
On November 16, Victorians are encouraged to make their steps count in an Independence Australian initiative called Steps for Independence.
For further details on the initiative, visit stepsforindependence.com.au
