Marathon man forced to retire because of chronic pain syndrome (From Basingstoke Gazette)
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Marathon man forced to retire because of chronic pain syndrome
9:37am Tuesday 4th September 2012 in News By Helen Morton
Damon Hazell
A BASINGSTOKE man who ran more than a dozen marathons has had to quit because he is constant pain.
Damon Hazell who raised more than £24,000 for various charities through his running, now suffers from chronic pain syndrome.
The 44-year-old has run 14 marathons, including a gruelling run in Malta and five successful London marathons.
He took up running in 2001 despite continuing to cope with the after-effects of severe injuries from a road accident in 1986, in which a car hit his bike.
He was left with a fractured skull, a gash in his brain, a fractured neck, broken left arm, torn cruciate ligament and his kneecap was twisted. He said: “The nerves where I was originally injured and all around the point of the injury are damaged.
“I’ve been told that all the running aggravated the injury but I don’t regret it for one second. It was for charity and I’m really proud that I managed to raise so much money. It might not be millions but it’s more than a lot of people raise.”
Although he was left without any memory of life before the accident, he was able to work as a carer.
Mr Hazell, who used to run every day and also competed in triathlons and numerous other charity runs, said: “I miss running all the time. I can barely walk now.”
He is on constant morphine and has had a neurostimulator implanted to stimulate electrodes in the spinal column in an attempt to combat the pain, which affects mainly his right leg and base of his spine. Sadly, the neurostimulator is no longer helping with his pain. He hopes to have a further operation on his back in the near future, but hasn’t yet got a date for the surgery.
Mr Hazell, of Quilter Road, Brighton Hill, said: “I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to run again or if I’ll ever be free of this pain.
“But I’m really proud that I managed to raise the money that I did.”
