Schoolboy Alex Noble reveals how broken neck won’t ruin his life
He was the rising schoolboy rugby star, but a “catastrophic” neck injury suffered during a training session has left Alex Noble facing the fight of his life. He speaks exclusively to the Sunday Telegraph of his brave determination. HOW YOU CAN HELP.
SITTING in his electric wheelchair, teenage rugby star Alex Noble can clearly recall the moment that put him in it.
“I remember all of it,” he said of his catastrophic injury at a training session with the under-17 NSW Rugby Sevens selection squad.
“I had the ball and I tried to get around the player, and I palmed him as well, and he grabbed my arm and he pulled it to the floor and I did a little front flip onto my head.”
The 16-year-old quickly realised he was in trouble.
“I thought my arms and legs were in the air but then I saw them on the floor,” Alex said.
“I was in shock … just in shock.”
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The Year 10 student at St Ignatius College Riverview had broken his neck and severely damaged his spinal cord.
As Alex lay on the ground, his parents, Kylie and Glen, received a call from a friend who was at the October 21 training session at Knox Grammar School.
“I remember her words: ‘There has been an accident’,” Mrs Noble said.
“I said: ‘Who?’ and she said: ‘Alex’.”
As Mrs Noble drove towards Royal North Shore Hospital, she was in contact with the paramedics treating Alex.
“When I was speaking to them, it became apparent that he was actually not moving and couldn’t feel anything, so that’s when I really started to freak out,” she said.
“I do remember at one point, I think I might have screamed: ‘No!’ or something like that.”
Alex was rushed into a six-hour operation to repair his shattered vertebrae and have rods and bone grafts from his hip inserted to stabilise the area.
Alex spent nine days recovering in intensive care with the surgery leaving him with two scars, an 8cm one along the front of his neck and a 12cm one down his spine.
The talented sportsman has no feeling in his hands and below his chest.
His parents have been told their son could be facing life as a quadriplegic.
“I’ve got hope but I’m also a realist,” Mr Noble said.
“It’s a pretty grim prognosis.”
The next few months are now a waiting game for the Noble family, who are desperately praying for Alex to regain more movement.
“I do feel like I am living in an unreal situation,” Mrs Noble said.
“I’ll wake up one day and it’s all been a really bad nightmare.
“I know so many people are feeling the pain because it could have been their child — they all know that.”
Eleven days ago, Alex was transferred to Royal Rehab at Ryde, the youngest patient in the 20-bed spinal injury unit.
“I try and stay strong,” Alex said.
Mr Noble also wants Alex to be part of a new University of Technology Sydney trial involving the use of a wireless implant to stimulate electronic messages to the spinal cord.
Before the devastating accident six weeks ago, the 1.85m-tall teen was a self-motivated, natural athlete, excelling at union and rugby league.
Some weekends he played three games of football and his club rugby team, Gordon, won the under-16 state championship this year.
“He’s good at everything,” Mrs Noble said.
“I never used to say that before but I can say whatever I want now.”
One of the first words Alex said as a baby was: “Ball”.
“He started playing rugby when he was 10,” Mrs Noble said.
“I didn’t let him play before that.”
Alex still speaks fondly of union, saying he loved “just everything” about the game.
“Every time you play it’s always different,” he said.
His accident was the fifth spinal injury suffered by an Australian schoolboy rugby player since July.
To say Alex is determined to prove doctors wrong is an understatement.
He already wants a manual wheelchair to push himself around and is spending hours in the rehab’s gym rebuilding his strength.
Alex has no time to watch Netflix, preferring to be entertained by the constant stream of family and friends visiting each day.
He keeps a photo next to his bed of him with three close mates while signed football jerseys hang on the walls of his hospital room.
This time next year, Alex said he wants to be back at school and “hopefully be walking and upright”.
Celebrities and sporting stars, including his heroes Cameron Smith and Billy Slater, have videoed messages of support while Alex’s parents have created a website to document his progress.
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help pay for his ongoing treatment and a sold-out fundraising lunch will be held on Thursday, hosted by Laurie Daley.
Mr Noble said former NRL player Alex McKinnon, who became a quadriplegic from a spinal injury in 2014, was also planning to visit his son.
Mr and Mrs Noble are indebted to the help they have received from friends and family, from cooking meals to daily hospital visits to help lift all their spirits, especially Alex’s.
The school community at Riverview and the different football clubs Alex has played for over the years have also been assisting the family.
The Nobles are also juggling work and caring for their two other sons, Zac, 18 and Benji, 12.
It was Zac who inspired Alex’s war cry: “I fight, you fight”.
Struggling with his brother’s accident, Zac didn’t want to sit his HSC maths exam.
“Zac had just lost the plot with everything after this happened — he couldn’t focus or concentrate at all,” Mrs Noble said.
“I was just saying: ‘C’mon, Alex is doing it, you’ve got to do it too’ and he (Alex) said: ‘I fight, you fight’.”
The family are preparing a room in their house to allow Alex to leave hospital during the day, hopefully in time for Christmas.
“It will be good to get home,” Alex said.
To make a donation to the Noble family, visit gofundme.com/Alex-Noble-IfightUfight
More: www.alexnoble.com.au
Show your support: www.instagram.com/ifightyoufight/
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