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***Malcolm*** · 10-12-2014, 12:47 PM

Former leading local TT rider and Senior Manx Grand Prix winner Paul Hunt, pictured in Southport General Hospitals spinal unit, where he has been since suffering life-changing injuries when coming off his travelling marshals bike on the opening night of practice for the 2014 TT. The 53-year-old IoM Fire and Rescue officer is resigned to the fact that he could be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life, but is certainly not giving up without a fight

‘This is not the way I anticipated spending the early days of my retirement, sat in a wheelchair,’
said Paul Hunt with a certain degree of resignation.

It is now six months since ‘Big H’ suffered a life-changing crash on the Mountain Course.

The former leading local road racer was on duty as a travelling marshal for the first qualifying session when word came through from race control that the practice had been scrapped because of wet roads over much of the course and poor visibility on the mountain section.

Hunt was in Parliament Square, Ramsey together with fellowTM and former MGP winner Chris Fargher.

The latter agreed to ride home to Barregarrow on open roads, but Paul took the direct route home to Douglas over the Mountain Road on closed roads as the so-called ‘furniture’ installation for the one-way system has to be set-up prior to that section of the course being re-opened.

Paul rode steadily over the mountain in the mixed conditions, as he has had to do on numerous occasions before when viewing the course in his capacity as a travelling marshal.

Shortly after the entrance to the Slieau Lhost gun range (between Windy Corner and the 33rd Milestone) he felt the front-end of the R1 Yamaha he was riding go from under him. ‘I’m not sure if it aqua-planed or I skidded on the white lines, but the next thing I knew I was sliding down the road on my back with the bike alongside me,’ said Paul.

Both he and the bike went off the road and he hit a fence 15 yards off the mountain, a good 10 feet or more below the height of the road.

‘My right arm got caught in the fence, and the force of my body going over my head snapped my neck.

‘It was a worrying thing at the time, I was lying there with my legs on top of me and not able to feel them.

‘It would appear that no one had seen or heard me crash; and I couldn’t radio for help as my Tetra unit was on the bike, together with my mobile.

‘I was struggling to breath and I thought, I’m not going to make this.’

He managed to calm himself down and the first to reach him after quite a few minutes was the doctor from the helicopter, which had spotted his machine from the air when en route back to the Grandstand having also been stood down from duty.

Hunt was flown to Noble’s where an MRI scan was carried out. Later that evening he was flown away to Walton Hospital in Liverpool.

He was operated on shortly after midnight when two bones from high in his neck were removed and replaced by titanium.

‘As it is now I can’t use my hands or my legs, so I’m a little bit restricted, but happy enough getting lots of visitors, you’ve just got to keep your chin up and hope it gets better.’

Paul is currently awaiting an operation on his right shoulder that will hopefully give him a bit of movement in his right arm that would perhaps enable him to operate a manual wheelchair. At the moment he is using a powered wheelchair.

‘Six months down the line and I’ve had this sore shoulder all the time with only restricted movement and I’m thinking why didn’t they do this four months ago and I would have been four months down the road of rehabilitation,’ continued Paul.

‘I’ve got to take what they say here at the hospital as gospel as they are the experts, and we’ll see what happens.

‘I am obviously at a bit of a crossroads in my life. I will obviously have to retire from work. I am in a very lucky position that I have a pension all paid up – in fact I could have retired two years ago. I have been with Isle of Man Fire and Rescue for 25 years, plus seven before that with the Post Office, so that’s 32 years pensionable pay at the moment.

‘At 30 years we can go with a full pension, so I am very lucky that way but it is not how I wanted to spend my retirement in a wheelchair.’

Paul Hunt will be back in the island for a week at Christmas when he will stay at Joey Dunlop Foundation’s Braddan House.

‘It’ll be a chance to see all the kids and as many people as I can; reminisce a bit.

‘Joey Dunlop Foundation has been kind enough to let me stay there as my own home has not been converted for wheelchair access yet. I am going to have my garage converted into a bedroom with a wet room in there, but I need to be in the island when that is going as I want to supervise what’s going on.

‘When I come back permanently I will be living in a property on Douglas quayside for a short period. This has already been converted as it belongs to an old schoolmate of mine, Barry Kaighin, who had an accident 25 years ago in London and broke his back. He lives off-island most of the time.

‘There are many things you don’t realise, such as converting your house and getting a bit of mobility. At the moment I’ve got a powered wheelchair that gives me some independence, but I’m not going to be able to get into town on that so I’m going to need a vehicle.

‘I will need to drive, it can be done. I want a bit of independence, I don’t want to be reliant on people to do everything for me.’

Showing great strength mentally, he is also has a positive attitude despite only slight improvements.

‘There are only minor improvements, but every time I get something more it perks me up so much you would not believe. I get excited and can’t wait to tell the kids that I’ve done this and done that. But in the big scheme of things it is so little.

’Time’s a great healer, as they say, and there is a little avenue in my injury that suggests that I could get better so I’ve go to cling to that hope and see what happens.’

Paul says that he has had unbelievable support from friends and family over the past six months.

‘The number of Manxies that have been over and called in you would not believe. One of my mates said I believe that Southport want to keep you in hospital as it is boosting the tourist trade so much with all the people coming over from the Isle of Man.

‘I’m looking forward to seeing a lot more people at Christmas.’

As a follow on to the above, If any of you would like to send your best wishes to Paul over Xmas, how about sending him a card while he is at the Joey Dunlop Foundation Lodge for the Xmas period.

Paul "Big H" Hunt

The Joey Dunlop Foundation
Braddan Bridge House
Peel Road
Douglas
IM4 4TN

I am sure that everything would be very well received and very much appreciated by Paul, who has entertained us all over the years in the TT and Manx GP, and later providing his services to both events as a travelling marshal,

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