A PARALYMPIAN has checked himself out of a world-famous NHS hospital and is paying £2,000-a-week for treatment in a bid to fulfil his dream of representing Great Britain again.
David Smith had his ambition of cycling in Rio shattered when a tumour which had previously left him temporarily paralysed grew back.
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Surgeons removed the tumour for the third time in March but the nine-hour operation left the 38-year-old struggling to move the left side of his body, ending his plans to compete with Team GB in Brazil.
Smith, who won a rowing gold medal at London 2012, said the programme he had at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Buckinghamshire was aimed at him “having a bath and brushing his teeth”.
He has transferred to the privately-run Neurokinex in Watford, which provides neurological activity-based rehabilitation.
The Aviemore-born athlete said that while the care had been “second to none” at Stoke Mandeville, the programme was not suitable for an athlete like him.
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“I had eight weeks at Stoke Mandeville and they struggled with me,” he said. “Their goals for me were to get in a bath and brush my teeth – and mine was to ride in the Alps. There was quite a gap.
“I was only getting three physio sessions a week. I was doing my own rehab.
“At Neurokinex it is based on an American approach, which was more goal-targeted to my needs.
“I have five therapists on me at a time. I am convinced this is the right way for me.
“I am planning a full recovery then getting back to competing next year for Great Britain and I aiming for the next Olympics in Tokyo in 2020.”
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Smith, who only has enough savings to cover until September, hopes to tackle the Route des Grandes Alpes, a gruelling 400-mile cycle across 17 of the highest mountains in France that month.
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