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'I was in at 7am doing some warm-up sets... Ed noticed straight away that my face had dropped'
Kathryn Dane has vowed to appreciate every moment of her rugby career after fighting her way back from a stroke at the age of 26.
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The Ireland and Ulster scrum-half suffered a brain haemorrhage in November last year while training at the Irish Rugby Football Union’s high performance centre in Abbotstown, where the prompt actions of medical staff and early treatment at Connolly and Beaumont Hospitals gave her the best possible chance of making a full recovery.
Eight months on, Dane, who also works a physiotherapist in Dublin, is back in light training and completing her PhD with a fresh perspective on rugby and life in general.
She said: “Before it, I used to just kind of go through life at 100mph and not really appreciate the good things or the achievements or the learnings that I’ve had.
“Since the stroke, I have just kind of realised that when you’re in those dark places, that’s when you start to see all the light that you have in your life.
“I have so many opportunities through sport and through my PhD that I never really appreciated before, and now I’m going to be properly grateful for what I have and enjoy rugby and enjoy all the moments that I have because I think I did take it a little bit for granted before.”
Dane became unwell when an arteriovenous malformation – a cluster of blood vessels – in her brain ruptured as she prepared for an early-morning gym session with her strength and conditioning coach Ed Slattery.
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She said: “I was in at 7am doing some warm-up sets of hip thrusts with my coach Ed Slattery and just got this massive pain behind my right eye in the back of my head and I didn’t feel great.
“Ed noticed straight away that my face had dropped – I didn’t notice it had dropped, but I didn’t feel great and he quickly got the team doc, who was actually in the gym at the time, to have a look at me and they knew straight away I’d had a stroke of some description.”
Dane was rushed to Connolly Hospital, where an MRI scan confirmed the medical team’s worst fears, and later transferred to Beaumont Hospital to undergo procedure to seal the damaged blood vessel.
She spent two weeks in hospital before being allowed home to Fermanagh to start the process of working her way back to health under the watchful eye of an NHS brain injury team.
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Dane said: “I was really, really lucky it happened where it happened because it could have happened on a rugby pitch in France or Italy somewhere. It was just by chance it happened there, and I do really believe that it was supposed to happen.
“I know it’s a s*** card to be dealt with, but it’s just a chapter in my story that I’ve had to overcome.”
Asked if her medical background, which had involved working with stroke patients, had proved a help or a hindrance, Dane said: “I’ve never lived in fear before, but when something like this happens to you out of the blue, you think, ‘Gosh, I’m vulnerable for the first time in my life’.
“It is beneficial to have that knowledge, but then at the same time ignorance is bliss sometimes.”
Initially having to battle fatigue and the left-sided weakness with which she had been left, has eased her way back to health and fitness, a process aided in part by a conversation with former Ireland back row Chris Henry, who returned to rugby after suffering a mini-stroke.
Asked about her own future in the game, she said: “I just want to make sure that I’m in the best place physically before I even begin to make that decision about returning to contact and returning to play.”
Comments on RugbyPass
‘Salads don’t win scrums’ 😂 I love that.
19 Go to commentsCan’t wait for the article that talks about misogyny in Ireland. Somehow.
12 Go to commentsI would like to see a rule change, when the attacking team is held up over the try line, by allowing the defensive team to restart a goal line drop out releases the pressure for the defensive team, but what if the attacking team had to restart a tap 5m out from the defensive team it gives the attacking team to apply more pressure, there are endless options for the attacking side and it will keep the fans in suspence.
2 Go to commentsLess modern South African males predictably triggered.
12 Go to commentsMy heart is with Quins, but the head is convinced Toulouse have too much. Ntamack is back, his timing and wisdom has been missed.
1 Go to commentsWow, what a starting line up for the Sharks) Tasty up front,kremer vs Tshituka or venter …fiery ,,Lavannini ,,will he knobble etzebeth? Biggest game for belleau?
1 Go to commentsIt was rubbish to watch, Blues weren’t even present. Did what they had to do, nothing more. Should be better next week against canes.
1 Go to commentsI’ve just noticed that this match has an all-French refereeing team. Surely a game like this ought to have a neutral ref? Although looking at the BBC preview of the Saints game, Raynal is also down as reffing that - so there may be some confusion about who is reffing what.
1 Go to commentsIf Havili can play anywhere in the back line, why not first 5. #10.
11 Go to commentsThe dressing room had already left for their summer break before they ran out in Dublin that year, and that’s on the coach. Franco Smith has undoubtedly made progress, particularly their maul, developing squad players and increasing squad depth. And against a very tight budget too. That said they were too lightweight last year and got found out against both Toulon and Munster in consecutive games. Better this season so far but they’ve developed something of a slow start habit occasionally, most notably losing at home to Northampton who played them at their own game. Play offs will ultimately show whether there has been tangible progress on last year, or not…!
2 Go to commentsAustralian Rugby has been a disaster, by not incorporating learning from previous successful campaigns. QLD Reds 2011 - Waratahs 2014. Players, coaches and administrators appoint there representatives for scheduled meetings, organisation’s agreement’s assessments and correspondence. This why a unified Rugby Union under one entity works. Every Rugby nation has taken that path. Was most difficult in the Northern hemisphere with over 100 years of club rugby before the game become professional. Took a lot of humility for those unions to eventually work together.
7 Go to commentsThough Wilson’s sacking was pretty brutal, it wasn’t just down to that Leinster game; Glasgow had a lot of 2nd half collapses that season, in the URC and Europe, and only just scraped into the playoffs. Franco Smith has definitely been an improvement, some players are delivering far more than they did under Wilson.
2 Go to commentsjesus - that front 5!
1 Go to commentsShould be an absolute cracker of a game! Will be great to see DuPont & Ntamack in tandem once again🔥
1 Go to commentsBest team ever…. To have played? These guys are still pressure chokers. Came nowhere when it counted. What a joke
81 Go to commentsMusk defends anonymous terrorism, fascism, threats against individuals and children etc etc But a Rugby club account….lock ‘em up!!!
2 Go to commentsActually the era defining moment came a few years earlier. February 2002 to be precise, when Michael D Higgins as finance minister at the time introduced his sports persons tax relief bill to the dial. As the politicians of the day stated “It seems to be another daft K Club frolic born in Kildare amongst the well-paid professional jockeys with whom the Minister plays golf” and that the scheme represented “a savage uncaring vision of Ireland and one that should be condemned”. The irfu and Leinster would be nowhere near the position they are in today without this key component of the finances.
5 Go to commentsIt is crystal clear that people who make such threats on line should be tried and imprisoned. Those with responsibility in social media companies who don’t facilitate this should be convicted. In real life, I have free speech to approach someone like Reinach and verbally threaten him. I am risking a conviction or a slap but I could do it. In the old days, If someone anonymously threatened someone by letter the police would ask and use evidence from the postal system. Unlike the Post, social media companies have complete instant and legal access to the content in social media. They make money from the data, billions. Yet, they turn a blind eye to terrorism, Nazi-ism and industrial levels of threats against individuals including their address and childrens schools being published online all from ananoymous accounts not real people. They claim free speech. Free speech for anonymous trolls/voilent thugs threatening people under false names? The fault is with the perps but also social media companies who think anonymous personas posting death threats constitutes free speech.
2 Go to commentsSo if this ain’t the best Irish team ever then who exactly is? I don’t remember any other Irish team being this good & winning a series in the Land of the Long White Cloud. Yes I may rip them often for 8 X QF RWC exits & twice not even making it to the QF, but they’re a damn good team who many think can only improve, including me!
81 Go to commentsNot a squeek out of Leinster for weeks about this match. So quiet. The first team have been quitely building for this encounter under Nienaber’s direction. All fresh, all highly motivated. They are expecting a season’s best performance from Northhampton. They will match that. They will be fresher and apparently they will have 80,000 out of the 83,000 shouting for them. I do expect Northhampton to turn up big time. Not to be missed. On a tangent it is evident how the loss of a few Premiership teams has in some respect helped other Premiership teams and England. More quality over less teams makes the teams better, which has a knock on effect on England. Not the only factor contributing to England’s rise but one of them.
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