Sports paramedic Marc Newman up for Queensland Community Achievement Award
A Mackay sports medic has been tapped on the shoulder for a second community award. Find out why he says kids need more support than ever on the sports field.
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While Marc Newman’s career in medicine has included tending to Russian ballerinas and serving in the Australian army, he says weekend community sports are more exciting.
Following pandemic lockdowns, Mr Newman earned a Citizen of the Year nomination in 2020 for a free online PE class he created with physical education teacher Dave Evans.
His passion for sports medicine has earned him another nomination, as well as a government grant, but he says it is all to help reduce troubling injury rates in modern kids sport.
“Sport is about promoting health and wellness and, hopefully, improving social skills and all those positive things,” Mr Newman said.
“In reality, what we see often is children underprepared … particularly for high-impact sports (and) more prone to injury as a result.
“(Kids) believe that they’re ready to play more serious sport at a younger age than they used to be.
“But physically their bodies don’t necessarily support that.
“Young boys and girls about 12 or 14 years old are behaving how most people would behave at 16 and 17 when I was at school.
“There’s been this evolution with increased maturity through, maybe, globalisation with much greater exposure to adult concepts (of sport).
“I think there’s a lack of awareness around that.”
Luckily Mr Newman is a common sight on Mackay sidelines in a variety of codes, volunteering to resolve emergencies, educate kids and foster healthy gameplay.
“I’ve volunteered my time to support their health and wellbeing by providing little education and information sessions about healthy eating and hydration and stretching and warm-ups and all that stuff,” he said.
The Pandemic PE program Mr Newman and Mr Evans developed came out of the same desire to support children’s health during lockdowns and led to his nomination in the 2020 Australia Day Awards.
“We knew a lot of the kids were sort of struggling a little bit mentally with being locked down and not having contact with their peers,” he said.
With permission from parents, Pandemic PE videotaped Mackay kids doing exercises and created a digital community to keep kids fit.
In 2022, medical equipment company Evolt contacted Mr Newman suggesting he nominate for the Queensland Community Achievement Award.
“I got the email and I thought, oh yeah, it doesn’t hurt to get involved to promote awareness, because it’s about the kids,” he said.
“I continue to be motivated to improve the health and wellbeing of children in sport.”
As CEO of Forebode Health and Injury Management, Mr Newman has been able to use his 30-plus years of experience in advanced pre-hospital emergency care to benefit his community.
Having completed a professional sports trainer course with Sports Medicine Australia in 1987, he now works with the NRL in medical accreditations for the North Queensland Cowboys.
A former Australian serviceman, Mr Newman says his work has taken him around the world in various contexts.
“Soldiers are really just athletes,” he said.
“When we’re not busy at war, we’re training (with) a lot of focus on developing athletic performance and recovering from injuries.
“I’ve worked with performers from Cirque du Soleil and dancers from the Bolshoi Ballet.
“The key focus has always been human movement.”
One memorable moment had Mr Newman caring for an injured dancer backstage at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre in Brisbane.
“That was interesting because she didn’t speak any English and, of course, I don’t speak Russian,” he said with a laugh.
“So we had to have a translator there.”
With communication so key to medical services, Forebode applied for and received a $5000 Business Basics grant to invest in web design and marketing development.
“We have a website … but at some point I went to update it and it just crashed on me,” he said.
One of 25 small businesses to receive the grant, Mr Newman received congratulations from Mackay MP Julieanne Gilbert in August while overseeing rugby union training at Mackay Christian College.
Despite the success of Pandemic PE, Mr Newman said he had “a habit of not celebrating our successes” and hoped to change that with these latest achievements.
“Invitations to nominate and even our nomination last year are really flattering,” he said.
“More than that, they reminded me or reinforced in my mind that we were making a difference.
“And that’s more important to me than winning an award.”
“If it’s just another way to promote the concept of health and wellbeing in children, then I’m excited about it.”
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