Gavin Foster
When Charles McEwan set off on his motorcycle that day in August 1992 he was on top of the world. A gifted soccer player, he’d just scored the two goals that won the Natal premier league for his side, Virginia.
Then came the accident that cost him his sport career, but couldn’t take his courage. With his right leg amputated below the knee the sports-mad youngster’s dreams dissolved, but he says he never wallowed in self pity. “I felt bad, but it was something that had happened and I had to live with it. The worst was when I had to go back into hospital a few months after the accident because I’d picked up an infection in my stump,” he remembers.”Everything seemed to be going so well until then.”
After the amputation McEwan did a fair amount of travelling which eventually led to his beginning a new career in sport, as a soccer coach. He and his older brother, also a professional player, started a mobile soccer training clinic in the United States, driving from town to town and charging $20 a child for coaching.
“We became quite well known and that opened a few doors for us,” he says. One of the opportunities that arose was the offer of a job coaching a newly formed college soccer team in Gulfport, Mississippi, and McEwan guided the youngsters to second place in the state championships.
After two years in the US, McEwan came home on holiday, and while in Durban was offered a job with one of the largest suppliers of prostheses in South Africa. “I thought about it, and was already on my way back to the States when I made up my mind,” he remembers. When the plane landed in Cape Town, last stop before Miami, McEwan got off, and since then he’s worked for the Durban company.
He has remained active in sport, particularly indoor soccer, where many of his team-mates and opponents are old cronies from his professional days. He also body-surfs, he’s tried cycling – he coped very well, but didn’t enjoy it much – and he takes his dancing pretty seriously, having featured in a professional dance extravaganza last year, an experience to be repeated later this year.
Last year McEwan was invited to take part in the New York marathon, a gruelling challenge. Despite not having run further than 5km in the past few years he accepted, and found the experience of starting with 32E000 other competitors mind-blowing.
“The first 10km were a breeze,” he says, “and even at 20km I was still going well. Then both my hamstrings cramped up at the same time. Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse my prosthesis broke, allowing my foot to swivel, and I had to stop and make a temporary repair every kilometre or two.”
McEwan eventually finished the race under his own steam, after nearly seven hours. “There’s a chance I’ll be going over again this year, and I hope to finish in around five hours with some decent training,” he says.
McEwan is chairman of the 700-member Amputee Club of Natal, and doesn’t see himself as a victim.
“I don’t accept that I’m an amputee,” he says. “I don’t even like using that word. That’s not me. I don’t see myself as disabled or handi-capped or anything like that. When I walk I don’t think about the fact that I have a prosthesis. I just walk. I don’t accept it, and that’s probably why I accept it so well.
“Through my work and my position in the club I meet many new amputees and the degree of their disability is largely dependent upon attitudes. It’s tough, especially in the beginning when you’re stuck in hospital waiting for things to happen, but I think in the end it can all help make you a stronger person.”