From bed bound to marathon man: Shepparton’s Tom Smyth

But just five years ago, he was in a hospital bed fighting for his life and had never been a runner.

In 2019, Mr Smyth, 21 at the time, was coming home from a long weekend at Greens Lake, travelling on a gravel country road.

“I was driving back with my brother when kangaroos jumped out in front of the vehicle,” Mr Smyth said.

“There were about four of them.

“I tried to avoid them, lost traction and lost control.

“I was driving an old 70s ute, which was light on the back end. I got knocked out and thrown out the window.

“Luckily my brother was there or I would not be here today.

“Both my lungs collapsed, my collarbone was broken due to the old seat belt and I had hairline fractures throughout my head.

“My brother had experience with roadside accidents through the SES so knew what to do.”

Mr Smyth also sustained an acute brain injury.

He spent three weeks in a coma and then six months at Epworth Richmond in rehabilitation.

At that time, a large research study, led by Epworth Rehabilitation, was in progress.

Physiotherapists were giving patients with traumatic brain injury strengthening exercises that are performed quickly (termed ballistic) to improve mobility.

Epworth professor of physiotherapy rehabilitation Gavin Williams led the study and said the aim was to determine the best exercises needed to perform basic daily tasks.

“After a brain injury, balance, co-ordination, weakness and spasticity are the areas affected,” Professor Williams said.

“Twenty years ago, we were concerned about spasticity and worried that strength training would make the muscles worse.

“We have realised that the main problem is weakness.

“Ballistic training is more suited to the real world, helping you get stronger but also teaching the muscles to contract more quickly and replicate how the muscles work when you walk, for example.

“Conventional strength training, which is performed slowly, has limited impact on mobility.”

Mr Smyth was one of the trial participants who had a pleasing outcome.

“Tom had three hours’ physiotherapy each day, which included work to help him stand up and practise balancing,” Professor Williams said.

“It took six months for Tom to be able to walk by himself. He’s always been pretty determined.”

Mr Smyth, who works in earthmoving, says he’s still recovering now.

“I’m on the better end of it, but I did a real big number on myself,” he said.

Amazingly, Mr Smyth found joy in running as he recovered. He began with a half-marathon (21km) in May (in three hours, two minutes), another in Run Melbourne recently (2:30) and is signed up for his local Shepparton Running Festival half-marathon on August 27.

“It’s taken years and a lot of work to do it,” Mr Smyth said.

“When I was still in hospital my goal was to do a parkrun (5km) in sub 30 minutes.

“That took 18 to 19 months to achieve.

“I love the feeling you get at the end of a long run, knowing you’ve pushed yourself and you succeeded.

“It feels awesome, you can’t beat it.”

Mr Smyth still has a few goals on his ‘to do’ list.

Battling the daily “killer” fatigue that is a result of the accident is one hurdle.

“I recently moved out of home and I’m learning to cook, through occupational therapy. I’d like to improve my speech and improve my balance — it’s shocking after losing hearing in my right ear,” Mr Smyth said.

“I want to ride a push bike again.

“I also work three days a week and would like to get to the point where I can add another day.”