Simon Richardson Update (08/09/11)

"We're trying to ascertain the wherabouts of Simon Richardson."  That was the call that Amanda received tonight from a UCI drug tester who had attempted to conduct a random drug test on Simon at his home in Porthcawl.

Simon subscribes to the Anti-Doping Administration & Management System (ADAMS) which means he has to submit his wherabouts, in order that random drug tests can be undertaken.  Prior to his collision, Simon had submitted that he would be at home tonight.

After hearing of Simons medical situation from his wife Amanda, the UCI tester in question accepted that Simon's circumstances were notably serious to miss the test.  In reality, it's not their fault, as no one had notified them of Simons accident, it's the athletes responsibility to update on their location.  Given everything that had gone on, you can imagine it was the last thing on the familys mind to update his ADAMS and his file showed that he should be at home, still it made for an interesting phone conversation. 

Simons had another good today.  He walked for 11m with sticks, wearing his body brace.  Dieticians are happy and the physios are happy.  His lungs need plenty of exercise, so they use one of these Powerbreath devices to strengthen them, you can imagine with his lung capacity as an elite athlete that he's got a decent VO2 on him normally, so he's in re-build mode with his breathing. 

Moving forward, I'll start to stretch the updates to every two to three days as his recovery is going so well.   Keep an eye on Twitter and if there is anything significant to report I'll get it posted up straight away.  I'll be visiting him in hospital in Cardiff tomorrow to pass on the best wishes of all the staff at Brother and the many people who continue to send messages of support, so will update after that.