Fundraising day for hospital which nursed broken neck rugby players back to health (From Watford Observer)

Fundraising day for hospital which nursed broken neck rugby players back to health

2:45pm Wednesday 8th February 2012 in News By Adam Binnie

A fundraising event for the hospital that cared for two sportsmen who broke their necks while playing rugby will be held this coming weekend.

Sam Shine broke his neck playing rugby for Chess Valley RFC under 16s on Sunday January 8. Just two days later, John Gray, a fellow senior player, suffered the same injury.

Lindsay Shine, Sam's mother, said: "Although their rugby playing days are now over, thankfully both Sam and John should eventually make full recoveries.

"This is due in no small part to the fantastic treatment and care they have received at Stanmore Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital."

Chess Valley RFC will be holding a fundraising event on Saturday, February 11, from 1pm onwards at Rickmansworth Sports Club in Park Road.

David Stokes, senior chairman, said the club was inspired to raise the money after experiencing the hospital's "professionalism, knowledge, and quite frankly the outcome."

He added: "We all understand the nature of the sport. The only thing we can take out of this was that neither were in set piece scenarios, they were both in virtually identical tackles.

"We've done a report on it and it was an unfortunate training accident, we will be reviewing the training sessions.

"Unfortunately it's probably the end of John's career and Sam will have a lot of healing to do, but he's still a young man."

The fundraising day will feature a veterans and old boys match against Welwyn RFC Vets/5ths, which kicks off at 2pm, followed by a post-match auction and raffle with all proceeds going to Stanmore RNOH.

Following this, the Six Nations rugby matches will be shown in the bar.