University of Otago student Paddy O’Brien was diagnosed with the rare cancer Ewing’s sarcoma in 2009.
While he was in remission, Mr O’Brien collected the most donors in a $1 billion fundraising campaign for the University of California San Francisco Benioff Children’s Hospital.
A keen athlete, he gave up contact sport due to the risk of damage to his left calf, from where the tumour had been removed, focusing instead on cycling.
While practising sprinting in Fryatt St, Dunedin, he collided with a car last Thursday, suffering concussion, breaking his collarbone and injuring his knee.
"I woke up and found about five standing around me," he said.
He spent about five hours in Dunedin Hospital after the accident. Mr O’Brien had been aiming to make the US cycling squad for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
He said he hoped he had not broken any bones in his knee, but he was waiting for another hospital appointment in about a week’s time to find out.
"Hopefully it’s nothing too serious."
He found the New Zealand healthcare system much easier to navigate than the US one, but it had still been tricky to get the appointment he needed.
Mr O’Brien, who was studying economics and science, was also focusing on his mid-semester tests, and said he had spent a lot of time sleeping due to the toll the accident had taken on his body.
His situation was a "little stressful" but he was lucky to have an "awesome" group of friends who were helping him.
The Knox College resident was determined to get back on his bike as soon as he could, and was keen to break the mould when it came to what Ewing’s sarcoma sufferers could do.
"You never really see anyone coming out of that doing anything super-amazing physically," he said.
"I’m no stranger to adversity. I’m always going to find a way to get back on the bike."
However, Mr O’Brien said he would probably not practise sprints on Fryatt St again, and he now appreciated it was "very dangerous".
It was a popular place for cyclists to train because it was usually very quiet, with the only traffic being big-rig trucks, whose drivers were used to sharing the road with cyclists, he said.
He had collided with the car at about 40km as it was pulling out, and he did not know who the driver was, Mr O’Brien said. His helmet had cracked and his bike was damaged.
