After losing a leg, athlete steers her life in new directions
BY LORI BONA HUNT
Athletics has always been a part of Mitzi Hepburn's life. Growing up in Wiarton, she was a figure skater, ran track and played high school basketball. She came to U of G with her sights set on being a physical therapist, choosing human kinetics and sports injury management as her major.
“But I always said I wasn't going to teach people to walk after accidents because it would be too depressing,” the 21-year-old says. “That came back to bite me.”
In July 2003, after her first year at Guelph, Hepburn lost her left leg following a motorcycle-car accident. She had been out to dinner with her father, Brent, a firefighter in their hometown, and some of his colleagues. They were all riding home from Owen Sound on motorcycles when a car sideswiped the bike that Hepburn and her father were riding.
The impact crushed both of their left legs and threw the pair more than 30 metres. They landed in ditches on opposite sides of the road. The driver of the car fled the scene.
“I don't remember a lot about the accident, except calling for my dad and hearing him call for me,” says Hepburn. “I do remember sitting up and seeing bone; my leg was pretty much off. So when I woke up in the hospital and my leg was gone, I wasn't too surprised.”
Doctors had amputated her left leg at the thigh and her dad's just below the knee.
“I'm an only child and have always been close to my parents, especially my dad,” she says. “I was ‘Daddy's little girl' for sure. But now we're even closer than before.”
The pair spent weeks in the hospital, then months going through rehabilitation.
“Initially, we were both in a lot of pain and had to help each other deal with it,” she says, adding that both she and her father also had severely fractured left arms. In addition, her father required extensive skin grafts.
“My mom, who's a nurse, was awesome about everything,” says Hepburn. “But my dad and I figured out ways to help each other that even my mom, with all the training she's had, says she never would have thought of.”
Hepburn returned to U of G in May 2004 after 10 months of recovery and rehabilitation.
“Having been here first as an able-bodied student, then coming back as a disabled student, I definitely noticed things I'd never noticed before, like how sidewalks aren't even. The entire place also seemed so much bigger.”
She wears a prosthetic leg and uses a cane to get around campus.
“I'm still very self-conscious about my prosthetic, but for the most part, I can get around without a lot of people noticing. They can see that I use a cane, but because I'm involved in sports, a lot of people assume I have a sports injury.”
It was coming back to university that got Hepburn back on track with both her career plans and athletics. During Accessibility Awareness Week on campus, she met a woman who played for the Canadian Wheelchair Basketball Association.
“I was looking to get involved in something,” she says. “I didn't want to become too sedentary after the accident. I'm a fidgety person.”
She ended up joining the Burlington Vipers team in 2004.
Earlier this month, she competed in the Canadian Wheelchair Basketball Association's junior national basketball tournament. Junior teams are made up of players under age 22. Hepburn's team placed fourth, losing the bronze medal by two points to Saskatchewan.
“Playing on the team has been really fun, and it has helped me put things in perspective,” she says.
Her teammates have a variety of disabilities, ranging from spina bifida and cerebral palsy to spinal cord injuries.
“After my accident, initially I was really discouraged about the things I couldn't do. Being on the team has really helped.”
Even though she played basketball in high school, Hepburn says it's an entirely different game when you're in a wheelchair.
“I was a runner, so all my power came from my legs. I had to build up a lot of upper-body strength to play from a chair. Shooting is also a lot harder — in fact, I still can't shoot.”
Hepburn juggled basketball practices and games around her schedule as a trainer with the University's varsity rugby and volleyball teams, which she did as part of the human kinetics program. She attended games and helped the athletes with stretching and taping.
Most recently, she has become involved in Wheels in Motion, the major fundraising initiative of the Rick Hansen Foundation. Events are held in hundreds of communities across Canada, with people walking, rolling, wheeling or running to raise money for and awareness of spinal cord injuries. Guelph's event is scheduled for June 12 at the Mitchell Athletics Centre, and Hepburn is the volunteer co-ordinator.
She was encouraged to get involved by Barry Wheeler, her adviser at the Centre for Students With Disabilities, who also helps organize the event. “She is an inspiration to other students with disabilities,” Wheeler says.
Hepburn also plans to take up running again and is looking into getting a new prosthetic leg that will allow her a full range of motion. “I'm so much more aware of what's out there now, what options I have.”
In fact, that new insight has helped her refocus her career plans.
“I want to become a certified athletic therapist. I want to work with athletes who have disabilities.”
