David Millar returns to where he suffered rugby injury in bold bid to advance science

Published on Tuesday 30 March 2010 23:12

JUST over 20 years ago David Millar was an eager Scotland under-21 No8 enjoying rugby in New Zealand and hoping it might lead to full Scotland caps on his return.

• David Millar, in his special wheelchair, will hand push 250 miles across New Zealand. Picture: Ian Georgeson

This week, he heads back to New Zealand, but with a deep sense of anxiety for when Millar did eventually leave the Land of the Long White Cloud, it was not for a Scotland jersey, but to a new life in a wheelchair, his spine having snapped in a rugby injury.

Having rebuilt his life and become a clinical neuropsychologist, now at the regional neurosciences centre in Newcastle, the injury in 1989 ignited a passion for neurology and a life's campaign to seek treatment and a cure for spinal injury. He decided last year to mark the 20-year point by returning to the place where his life was dramatically altered.

He is not taking the tourist route however. Dr Millar has been pushing his wheelchair along the roads around Newcastle daily for the past eight months, in all weathers, to prepare for a unique challenge – to hand-cycle 250 miles around New Zealand's South Island and raise as much money as possible for spinal injury research. That is where much of the anxiety stems from this week as he packs up for what he has termed 'The Mighty Push'. He has received support from across Scotland and New Zealand and his website appeal has attracted donations from all over the world and already taken him past his 25,000 target. Sir Chris Hoy is backing Millar's effort and Roger Baird and Gavin and Scott Hastings are among ex-internationalists lending support, while the "Hearts and Balls" charity, and its founder John Evans, have played a central role in turning this dream into reality. But no-one can ride it for him. Millar lands back in Christchurch on Sunday and begins his mammoth challenge on Thursday, and he acknowledged yesterday: "I am a bit apprehensive now. Backing out has never been an option – I passed the point of no return a long time ago – but I know I have a lot of pain awaiting me over the next few weeks.

"I have completed a 25-mile run but have not done them back-to-back so I don't know how I'm going to react to ten of them. The longest event I've completed was the Great North Run at 13 miles in 2006, which was quite a challenge in itself.

"And there are going to be mixed feelings going back to Christchurch, but it has to start there. I can still remember ending up in the Burwood Spinal Injuries Unit and the local radio station putting a message out saying there was this Scot in there a long way from home, and I had loads of goodwill messages and visitors from that point."

Millar spent months with no feeling from the neck down, but gradually recovered some use in his arms and, back in Hexham General Hospital's spinal unit, his native Glasgow not having the great facility it has now, he also met Lynn, who was to become his wife, main support and now a professor in medicine. He returned to New Zealand to study neurosciences and then came home to complete a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology at Newcastle University and then an MSc in Clinical Neuropsychology at Glasgow University. Millar remains an inspirationally positive individual, but admits to having winced when he saw Thom Evans injured playing for Scotland against Wales in February. Evans has not suffered the same degree of injury, and hopes to make a full recovery after two spinal operations, but it was a reminder of why he is taking on this challenge. His long-time friend Baird, the former Scotland winger, is also Evans' mentor through the Winning Mentors' programme instituted by the Winning Scotland Foundation and the SRU, and the fellow ex-Merchiston pupil is friendly with Willie Watt, whose son Nick suffered a spinal injury playing for Merchiston in September 2008.

"David injured himself in a very similar manner to Thom, tackled in front and behind. The treatment that Thom received saved him from something that could have been worse," Baird explained.

"What David is doing just highlights what kind of a person he is. He has been doing all his training through this horrible winter and when you see him working that pedal-driven wheelchair with his arms, it shows the challenge he faces. The Scotsman will be following Millar's 250-mile journey, setting off from the sports injuries clinic in Burwood across the Canterbury Plans to Geraldine, 109 miles away, then 50 miles along the Laket Tekapo canal system and, the final stage, across the rougher Otago rail trail.

"I'm too old to be doing this," added the 43-year-old, "but I am determined to help progress the research. We are still some way off finding a cure to put people back on their feet, but there are a number of different treatments now set to move from the laboratory to clinics."