Live or die, Monty made his choice
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| Monty Summers. Pic Brian Byrne/Kilcullen Diary. |
It was all about attitude, and today he credits his mother with pushing him to make the right choice.
"Basically she asked did I want to tap out or fight," says Monty Summers, who was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia after collapsing during a national cross-country race in Tasmania.
Monty was 17 at the time, in his last year at boarding school in Queensland. Not fully aware of the seriousness of his condition at first, he only realised it when his dad broke down in the hospital. "When you see your dad crying, so vulnerable, then you know it's bad."
It's not uncommon for people in Monty's situation to get depressed, and lose the will to live. But his mother worked at bringing him the other way, even to renaming his ALL as Attitude Laughter and Love to get the message through.
It still wasn't in any way an easy time, with six months of chemo and radiation treatment before it was agreed that a bone marrow transplant was the best way to deal with his illness. An initial candidate in Germany didn't work out, and a year after his diagnosis Monty received the transplant from an anonymous Australian donor.
"It was textbook, and went well," he says, glossing over the fact that the difficulties of potential rejection make the procedure dodgy enough in the early months. In fact it was a tough journey, with lots of ups and downs. "I was learning things at 17 that a 17-year-old shouldn't have to learn." Today, though, he is well, and finished his final medical treatments last year, just before turning 30.
A potentially star athlete before he became ill, the leukaemia obviously impacted on Monty'a running, and also stopped his expected path through university and a consequent career. His identical twin brother Tighe took that road instead. "It was like watching my other life on TV as he went on to become an engineer, and had all the fun of university, and running competitively, along the way."
The experience with ALL and afterwards turned Monty in a different direction. "In a way it made me look at things outside the box, and work out what I wanted to do with my life. I was on a bit of self discovery. I was very closed off initially, but then I found myself more open to things. That progression, the evolution of me towards being more open to change, was very interesting."
Gradually he became involved with the community of organ transplant patients, where he found 'some very amazing people'. With some friends he organised a 1,200kms relay run from Brisbane to Longreach in Queensland, in which they raised over $100,000 for the Australian Leukaemia Trust and a children with autism charity. "Then I got involved in the whole Australian Transplant Games. I met people who are just loving life."
He eventually notched up a rake of national running records in the Games at various distances. In 2013 he represented Australia at the World Transplant Games in South Africa. He established a number of world records, but the achievements paled when his father died following a brain haemorrhage during the closing ceremonies.
After studying exercise science at the University of Queensland, Monty worked with disabled athletes for a time. "Again, I found wonderful people with a passion for life. My job was to work out with them where they are, where they can go, and put it all together."
He arrived in the UK late last year, where he will be working with endurance and long distance athletes, developing strength and conditioning programmes for them. He came to Ireland with some friends for Christmas, and spent New Year with Kilcullen's transplant athlete James Nolan. A day canoeing on the Barrow with Kilcullen's former Olympics paddler Brendan O'Connell he describes as 'so much fun'. He's planning to come back to Kilcullen for the 30th anniversary of the Punchestown Kidney Research Fund's Charity Race at the Punchestown Festival in April.
As you talk with Monty Summers, you become very aware of an aura of extraordinary positivity. He's somebody who has clearly arrived at the knowledge that life is for living, and in his work with other transplant athletes he is surrounded with like-minded people. "We're all changing, both mentally and physically," he says, adding that many of the people concerned have faced much more difficult challenges than his. "It's a culture of gratitude and happiness."
NOTE: The 30th Anniversary of the PKRF Charity Race at Punchestown will be held on Saturday week, 4 May, at the end of the 2019 Punchestown Festival.
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