Kilwinning Weightlifter battles back

Jan 9 2009 by Lorraine Howard, Irvine Herald

WEIGH TO GO!

SCHOOLBOY champion weightlifter James Burley has vowed to put a three-month lung infection behind him and go for gold in 2009.

Just days after lifting as part of the Scotland squad at the Youth Commonwealth Games in India last October, the superfit 17-year-old’s health began to deteriorate.

In a matter of days, he shed over two stones and was too weak to leave the house.

Doctors were baffled as to what was wrong with him but suspected it was a strain of tuberculosis he had picked up from a bite in India. They told him to rule out training for at least a year.

But determined James has defied the odds and is now on the road to training again, proving to be an inspirational young athlete.

“I felt as though my body was giving up, I didn’t have any energy and was getting more frustrated by the day,” said the Kilwinning Academy pupil.

“During the games my coach had noticed I was losing weight but I thought it was just because we were so busy training and lifting.

“But when I came home, I just knew I wasn’t right and could see mum and dad were worried.”

In a desperate bid to find help, mum Morag and dad Jim took James to a consultant who ruled out TB and believed it was a viral infection that affected his lungs, possibly picked up in India.

The teenager had gone from training under coach Charles Hamilton at Kilmarnock Weightlifting Club four times a week, teaching guitar and learning the piano, to being too weak to leave the family home at Park Avenue, Kilwinning.

Dad Jim said: “We still don’t really know what triggered this illness but it has been a very worrying time for us all.

“To see our son, who has always been active and fit, reduced to being too tired to get up, is very difficult to watch and we are glad that he is beginning to put weight back on and seems to have turned the corner.

“It’s going to be a long road but if anyone can do it, James can.”

Since October, the weightlifter who regularly lifts over 100 kilogram weights in competitions, has vowed to get fit and is now focussing on being strong enough to compete in the British Junior Championships to be held in Derby in three months time.

And he has support from his 13-year-old sister Sarah, who has been the Scottish Junior Champion for the last three years.

James added: “Sarah has laid off the training a little to help me and she has been a great support.

“Mum and dad and my older sister Marie have also been there for me and put up with a lot and I want to make them all proud.

“I want to follow in the footsteps of Peter Kirkbride who is a tremendous lifter.”