Biddulph veteran achieves long-held Invictus Games dream
When he was lying in a hospital bed in 2020 with a fractured skull and broken neck, Rob Shenton might have thought his dream of competing in the Invictus Games was over.Four years later the army veteran from Biddulph, Staffordshire, has returned from Canada after taking part in this year's games, a special sporting competition for people injured when serving in the armed forces.The 52-year-old came 19th in the Nordic Skiing event and achieved a personal best in the indoor rowing.But while he seemed pleased with his performance, he told BBC Radio Stoke he was struck by the "outstanding" camaraderie among competitors from all nations.
"We've all been united by something that's happened to us and normally that's trauma of some sort but we're all being healed on the recovery journey that we're on," he said."At the end of the day, we were all service personnel, we've all had our own battles and we're all getting through them."
Mr Shenton was in the British Army for 25 years, serving in Bosnia, Kosovo, Northern Ireland and Afghanistan, before he was medically discharged due to suffering with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).He applied in 2018 to be on Team UK in the Invictus Games but was unsuccessful, as he was on the next two attempts.In 2020, he was injured in a cycling accident breaking six vertebrae and fracturing his skull.He spent eight months recovering, with help from staff at the Royal Stoke University Hospital, returning to training shortly afterwards before he was accepted onto Team UK at the fourth time of asking.
Despite finding it difficult to compete against the younger athletes, Mr Shenton said he had to appreciate just how far he had come, describing it as "part of the journey".He accepted he would probably never be in the army again, despite saying he would give up everything to put on the uniform again.For now, he said he would continue to focus on his work as a civil servant and on improving himself physically and mentally.The next Invictus Games take place in Birmingham in 2027.
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