Rollerblaze on the Gold Coast by 4G Productions
Channel: 4G Productions
Date: 2014-01-12

Kurt Thomson doesn't remember the car accident in April 2000 that changed his life forever.

Instead of heading to his classes studying for dual diplomas in justice and business an ambulance was hurrying him to the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane, desperate to save his life.

In hospital, doctors called his loved ones to his side in the expectation he wouldn't survive. The desperate surgical battle to repair his damaged heart and a tear in a main artery left him with spinal cord nerves damaged or destroyed which left him paraplegic.

Three years later, a continuous round of physiotherapy, hydrotherapy and gym work were slowly reconditioning Kurt's paraplegic body. Then Kurt met Dion Reweti who played wheelchair basketball for the Spinning Bullets and ran a business customising wheelchairs. 

With Dion's encouragement, in 2004 Kurt embraced wheelchair basketball and was soon playing alongside some of the biggest names in Australian wheelchair basketball.

Kurt recalls that champions like Adrian King, "He pushed me hard every session."

"Tige Simmons taught me how fun basketball could be and Dion Reweti helped me set goals and made me believe that I could take basketball as far as I wanted to."

Life went well for Kurt; he married Kara and found success in the state league. Unfortunately, he'd set himself too high a schedule and he burnt out by 2005.

The birth of his son Jacob in 2010 renewed his interest in life. The following year he took on work with personal injury lawyers Maurice Blackburn.

Then a telephone call from Australian international players Adrian King and Dion Reweti drew him back to basketball with the Gold Coast Rollerblaze.

"The skills were rusty," Kurt recalls, "but the knowledge and the fundamentals were still there."

The Rollerblaze was Kurt's salvation. As Rollerblaze founder Lisa Stewart puts it, the Gold Coast team gave him the opportunity to "learn to live again."

With champion players like Kurt, Adrian and Dion, Rollerblaze went on to pick up a bronze medal in the International Masters Games.

Kurt's enthusiasm for sport and life didn't stop there. He organised his employers to play the inaugural Maurice Blackburn Challenge and he entered every basketball event on the calendar to become an ambassador for the sport and for the Gold Coast's Rollerblaze.

Work moved Kurt and Kara to Townsville, where they still tackle wheelchair basketball for the Townsville Cyclones.

By August 2013, Kurt also represented the Gold Coast Rollerblaze and under the auspices of Gold Coast Recreation and Sport and Sport Matters, he travelled to the Solomon Islands to run an eight-day wheelchair basketball clinic to open up community ties and the sport in the Pacific. 

These days Kurt's keen to have "one last crack at breaking into the national league in 2014." As for the Gold Coast Rollerblaze, Kurt says they remain "a beacon of positivity. They are amazing and for as long as my body can physically withstand the brutality of competitive basketball, I will credit the Rollerblaze for getting me back in the game and living life to the fullest."

Words by David Gilchrist, 4G Productions https://vimeo.com/davidgilchrist http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=171509766&trk=nav_responsive_tab_profile