Rugby: Macqueen living life to the full after bad crash

A PROMISING rugby union career beckoned for Bathgate's Nathan Macqueen. A product of the Glasgow Warriors Youth Development squad, the youngster's desire to forge a professional career within the sport remained a distinct possibility.

However, Macqueen suffered life threatening injuries in August 2009 when he slipped off his motorbike and collided with an oncoming car leaving the teenager fighting for survival.

Internal bleeding, broken ribs and femur bones in addition to three broken vertebrae in his back left doctors with a momentous challenge of offering some sort of recovery. However, despite being given the earth shattering news about his paralysis from the legs down, Macqueen was offered a change of direction in a sporting capacity and was recently victorious in the Celtic Cup where he represented Scotland under 25s - in chair basketball.

He said: "In all honesty I'm lucky to be alive. The doctors saved my life so I am extremely grateful. I spent five months in hospital and it felt like it was the end of the world when I realised I'd spend the rest of my life in a wheelchair. But I think I've become a better person for it and appreciate things a lot more than I used to."

Macqueen, now 20, admits it seemed impossible, initially, to envisage how life could return to something that resembled normality. Socialising with friends, driving, going to work, merely appeared as challenges he was incapable of overcoming - or so he believed. "I've learned to cope with it and can continue to do most things I could prior to the accident. I never thought I would be able to participate in a sporting sense again, but when I was at the spinal unit in Glasgow I was taken out to try chair basketball and I really enjoyed it. Rugby was obviously my favoured sport but I knew that had now closed. It was good to represent Scotland and to win was even better. We beat both Wales and Northern Ireland quite convincingly so I think we were deserved winners."

Macqueen plays for local club Lothian Phoenix who compete in the Great Britain Wheelchair Basketball Association Division One North section. "There are a lot of good players at the club so I think I've benefited from playing with them," he added. "We train every Thursday so that obviously helps too with regular practice. It involves quite a lot of travel as there are only two teams in Scotland and the other side don't compete in our section so we're down in England a lot for our away matches."

And his exploits at chair basketball's Celtic Cup were perhaps exceeded by being named in the powerlifitng squad for the 2014 Commonwealth Games, a competition for Para-Sport athletes who compete under the weightlifting category where their bench-pressing skills come under scrutiny.

"When I think about it and what I've got ahead of me, it makes me smile and I can't wait for it," says Macqueen. "I'm training three days per week and I've got my basketball too so I am pretty active."

There is now an inspiring air of optimism surrounding the youngster which, at one stage, never seemed possible.