In 1993 Glenn “Gator” Heazlewood had the world at his feet.
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At 18 years old, he was a talented sportsman with ambitions of a career in the AFL.
“I was just about to grow up,” the now 41-year-old said.
His life changed when the car he was a passenger in slammed into a tree on Pertobe Road, killing one of his best mates.
For 28 days Mr Heazlewood lay in a coma. “My body couldn’t cope, my head couldn’t cope.”
He spent months in a head injury rehabilitation centre in Melbourne and still lives with a brain injury and the physical scars of the accident.
“I suffered a head injury, I got a right side hematoma, that’s the technical term,” Mr Heazlewood said.
“I smashed my forearm pretty bad, I’ve got big scars. There’s a little hole in my arm where the bone actually came through the skin. I saw the tree coming and I locked my arm trying to protect myself, because it didn’t have any give in it, it just smashed.”
Once a rising star on the footy field, sport is still a huge passion for Mr Heazlewood.
“It’s quite funny... in my last game I was best-on-ground and we won the grand final… then I was actually at the first home and away game of the new season on weekend leave from the hospital.”
He admits it was difficult to sit on the sidelines.
“It was tough. In lots of ways it still is.
“I can’t say I haven’t been (angry) but that’s never affected my personality or the person that I am.”
Mr Heazlewood is pretty philosophical about his life now.
“It’s just something that happens and you’ve just got to deal with it. You can either whinge and moan about it or you can say ‘well, these are the cards I’ve been dealt’. That’s the best analogy I can give for my whole circumstance, look at the hand you’ve been dealt and work out the best way to play with those cards.
“I live with the opinion that we have the choice to determine what happens to us. We leave doors open or closed and things can happen to us or you can shut the door and things can’t.”
Mr Heazlewood credits his involvement with Kardinia Church and his love of sport for helping in his ongoing recovery.
While some things are still a struggle, Mr Heazlewood said his body and mind had continued to improve.
“When I started boxing with Rude Ryan I couldn’t throw a left-hand punch in a pink fit. To be honest, I was walking around with my hand in my pocket just to stop it flapping around because I wasn’t comfy with it and I didn’t use it at all,” he said.
“But now that I’ve been doing it a while it’s like my body has demanded my brain to find a way to do it.
“When parts of your brain shut down, you find new pathways to be able to do it.”