Old pals put Shropshire paralympic archer Mikey in the picture
Shropshire paralympic archer Mikey Hall will be in hospital for another six months, after already being there for the best part of a year.
But that didn't stop his friends The Shropshire Yeomanry Comrades Association presenting him with a painting at Salford Royal Hospital.
Mikey, from St Martins near Oswestry, was put into an induced coma after being rushed into hospital for emergency surgery.
The sudden illness came just days before the Paralympic gold medallist was set to compete in the Czech Republic.
Michael Hughes, who presented the painting alongside Paul Wood, said it was an honour to present Mikey with the painting.
"A year ago he started to become ill," Michael said. "He was at Lilleshall training. They didn't know what was the matter. He was in an induced coma for 13 days.
"He was in Royal Shrewsbury Hospital for eight months, but they couldn't heal him. Since the end of January he's been moved to Royal Salford Hospital in Manchester."
Mr Hughes said the painting was to celebrate Mikey's military past.
"The print is showing The Shropshire Yeomanry on horseback at their summer camp in the 1800s," he said. "The picture shows the Wrekin to the rear."
From 1992 to 1995, Mikey was a member of The Shropshire Yeomanry Squadron of The Queens Own Mercian Yeomanry, later to become The Royal Mercian & Lancastrian Yeomanry, before joining The Queens Dragoon Guards serving from 1995 to 2002. Mikey served in The Falklands, Northern Ireland and Bosnia and Kosovo.
He was on a regimental exercise when he fell from a rope bridge which resulted in him becoming paralysed. Mikey then spent many months in Oswestry's Orthopaedic Hospital receiving specialist treatment and then becoming confined to a wheelchair.
Mikey joined the Help for Heroes Sports Recovery Programme and excelled in archery. As well as the Paralympics, he has competed in Prince Harry’s inaugural Invictus Games in 2014, and the World Para Archery Championships and Para Continental Championships.
“I was in a really dark place after the accident, I thought my life was at an end. But sport and Help the Heroes gave me a new life," Mikey said.
The sudden hospitalisation got him down, he said, but he aims to compete in the next Paralympic Games.
“Sometime I wonder ‘Why me?’ – again,” he added.
“But I have to look to the future. I have had so much support and messages from people. Lots of people have dropped in to see me including my coach and team-mates."
