LEAH KILNER - WHAT AN AMAZING WOMAN!

By Graham Potter | Tuesday, August 30, 2022

‘If I can some day help anybody and inspire them to keep pushing, I will be happy if I can do it, so please if anyone needs help reach out!’

And she wonders why she is an inspiration to us all!

‘She’ … being the extraordinary Leah Kilner who, after her life came crashing down in a racehorse fall at Grafton on July 3, would have been forgiven for feeling sorry for herself or for struggling to take up the formidable recovery challenge she is faced with … but, no, there was none of that.

Instead, as can be seen by the above extract from her latest post on Facebook, Kilner is thinking of others and placing an emphasis on helping their well-being

For close on two months now, Kilner’s story has been well documented … from those first critical moments on the track, through the life threatening hours and the tough days that followed, to her stabilisation, to a kinder place where recovery, as tough as that was going to be, could start taking place … but somehow, understandably, when it is all expressed in Kilner’s own words … it still sends a chill down the spine.

As in her facebook post when she describes that moment yesterday … another landmark day in Kilner’s remarkable recovery … when she was discharged from hospital.

‘Wow, who knew I’d be legitimately walking out of here (the hospital) … and Alive! ‘I bet if you asked those around me in the first couple of days it may have been a grave “I’m not sure,” posted Kilner.

‘There’s still a very long way to go and a lot more therapy, which luckily I have the home team come to me now and do it from home. I may talk and look better then what i actually am, there’s a hell of a long way to go, but I’m ready to take it on and continue to get as better as I can.’

Kilner also mentioned her injuries … ‘Apart from the severe head / brain trauma, I had a collar bone snapped in 3, broken ribs, a small fracture in the ankle, my whole left side extremely weak and still tingly, even a closed left eye, which has me left with only 25% vision and we won’t forget the post traumatic amnesia. I even attempted throwing myself out of bed to “wake myself up.”

But, she didn;t dwell on that, with a large part of that Facebook post dealing with her long list of her heartfelt ‘thank you’ messages saying, ‘I feel lucky that I’m here to tell the crazy story and thankful for all the people that have been here to support me and all the people that have sent a message, a prayer, anything at all, it’s all helped!

‘Thank you to all the nurses and drs at the PA who have looked after me, especially when I was pulling tubes out of everywhere 5x a day, and my favourite nurse Carly who went above and beyond for me there.

‘And we can’t forget the paramedics first on the scene and the Westpac Helicopter and all the barrier/track staff. Literally all played a part in saving my life my life.

‘But the biggest Thank you goes to my family and close friends, they know who they are.’

While all of that is absolutely true, Kilner still had to play the most important part in her survival herself.

From the first moments after the accident Kilner’s family, friends and the those involved in all aspects of the entire racing industry where all behind her, willing her to fight for life and she duly did just that with her incredible resolve going a long way to providing a powerful combined forcefield of self, family, friends and the whole of the racing community which would help lift her up and carry her out of the abyss in what has been quite an incredible journey.

‘I’ve only had to look around and think and remember others to realise that I’ve actually been extremely lucky throughout all of this’, posted Kilner.

‘To see people have called me strong, brave, an inspiration and even a miracle is really unbelievable, I would have never called myself those things. But when I hear the first stories and see where I am now, I guess I really have come a long way.’

And that is when she added, ‘if I can some day help anybody and inspire them to keep pushing I will be happy if I can do it, so please if anyone needs help reach out!

What an amazing woman!

Hey, Leah … on behalf of the whole racing fraternity … ‘we salute you.’