Gold Star – Kilner
Kilner started coming to ARC for twice-weekly physiotherapy in December 2022 following a stroke in November 2022 which left him with left-sided weakness and reduced balance. At that point, he had already mastered walking without aids but a 1km walk on the flat would see him needing to take a nap and he couldn’t go up or down the stairs at home without holding on to the rail.
Prior to his stroke Kilner was a regular at his local park run and he came to ARC with the goal in mind of completing a 5km trail run at Lake Crackenback at the end of February 2023.
Kilner has turned up to every appointment, armed with a smile and jokes, ready to attempt any crazy exercise I come up with, and diligently practiced at home, either on his own, or with his wife, and training partner, Lesley.
In a recent physiotherapy session, we repeated Kilner’s outcome measures.
His six minute walk test had improved from 312m to 429m, timed up and go improved from 11 seconds to 7 seconds, and his HiMat improved from 13/54 to 21/54, and single leg balance on his affected leg form 4 seconds to 30 seconds – an impressive improvement across measures of walking speed, endurance and balance in just 2 months!
In this time Kilner has also relearned how to hop, jump, and run, returned to driving, and on the 25th of February he achieved his goal of finishing a 5km trial run in the Snowy mountains!
Well done Kilner and keep smashing those goals – we can’t wait to see what you achieve next!
