- Para darts has given me the opportunity to expand from playing in my garage and fighting depression, to travelling overseas and inspiring others. It's given me the opportunity to meet people from all over the world. It doesn't matter where you go in the world, wheelchair-bound people are fighting the same battles. My name's Rob Gillan. I'm a T34 paraplegic following a forklift accident when I was 14 years old. (INTRIGUING MUSIC) Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2024 (LIGHT GUITAR MUSIC) Darts began with my parents. They played darts back in their early days. We used to tag along as kids and watch them play and run around like` as kids do. - (CHUCKLES) - My mum is Glenda. Dad is Eric. - That's where it all began. - That's a while ago now, isn't it? - Yeah. (CHUCKLES) Dartboard in the background. - Yeah. - Well, we met through darts. Oh, that's an old one. - Yeah. - And all the brothers. - Oh yeah, yeah. - I have three brothers. What number am I? One. Dale, Mark and Matt. Oh, come on. They are all dart players themselves. - OK, that's, uh... (LAUGHTER) - Yeah, we're a close family. More friends than family. - Oh! Double. - That counts. - Am I winning? - Uh, no. Mark's winning. - I played youth darts as a kid. As soon as I turned 18, I started playing pub darts. Darts can be played anywhere, everywhere by anyone. - GLENDA: Robert plays at Otago Darts every Wednesday night and Thursday at Mosgiel Darts. He's playing able-bodied people. And he holds his own. He does very well. And I think... that gives him a lot of pleasure. Look how blonde he is. - God, yeah. - Love that stripy top. - Yeah, cheeky little bugger. - (CHUCKLES) - He's a good-natured boy. - Loved to do everything with you, didn't he? - Yeah, yeah. - You'd be mowing the lawns; he'd be out there with his. - Yeah. He'd help me mow the lawns with his little plastic one, pushing it around beside me. Little Robert with his rugby` - Player of the day. - Player of the day. - When I was a kid, I used to go with my dad to work in his trucks. Out of us for brothers, I was the only one that wanted to pursue truck driving. - And he helped unload the truck and he drove the forklift and... and he was quite good with it. - The date of my accident was 31st of March 2001. I was unloading this truck where I would normally put the fork down. On this one occasion, by accident, I left the fork up. - And went in reverse with the forklift sort of turning at the same time, and unfortunately, the forklift, one side of it, went into a` quite a large sort of pothole, and the forklift fell over. - It didn't land on me. It's just the way I hit the ground. I couldn't breathe because I collapsed my lung. I also bruised my heart and had other internal injuries. - It was pretty hard. I said, 'Rob, you OK? 'You know, are you`?' And he says, 'No. - I keep repeating to him that I can't feel my legs. 'I can't move my legs.' - It's your worst nightmare. - My dad went in to father mode and put me in the car and drove me to hospital. That's all I remember. - We were told by one of the doctors that Rob's back was broken and that his spinal cord was transected. You know, this was an A&E. And, uh, yeah. So it was like` just shock. The next day` - They flew up to Christchurch Hospital. - I had fractured my spine in three places, and there was paralysis from the T3 thoracic spine level. I was pretty scared when I woke up. Watching my parents beside me after telling them that I was OK was one of the hardest things I had to see. It was the first time I saw my dad cry. - When Robert was brought out of his coma, the first thing that Robert and Eric said to each other was sorry. 'I'm sorry.' Both. (CHUCKLES SOFTLY) - Yeah. - Yeah. - I spent the week in ICU before them transferring me to Burwood Spinal Unit, where I spent four months with my rehab and my physio. All my life I wanted to take after my old man ` be a truckie and own my own trucks. So I decided to purchase some model trucks so that I can say that I have trucks of my own. Um, this is the first one I bought. A lot of detail goes into these trucks. When I had my accident, my dream was taken away from me. These are just a reminder that the passion's still there. And who knows, someday down the track, I might get to. (PENSIVE MUSIC) - How many points are you going to give me? - Oh, none. - Can't seem it's, what, 20-odd years, I think, since we first met just down the road. I just can't understand how the time has gone. - I remember that phone call. When I first got back home from Burwood Spinal Unit, I received a phone call from an Englishman with a lisp. (CHUCKLES) He said, 'Hi, my name is John Marrable.' John taught me how to live life in a wheelchair. - When I heard there was this 14-year-old who recently had his accident, I was really keen to touch base with Rob because I'd had my accident when I was 11, and I sort of knew the struggles and the hassles and the bullying that you face. Even family don't really know what you're going through, and I just liked the opportunity to pass on some of the skills I learnt. Sometimes you just need someone to understand what you're going through. - The mental challenges didn't start until I returned to high school. I was bullied for being in a wheelchair. It led me to multiple, prolonged absences from school. - Everybody pretended. I think that's how you can say it. Rob pretended he was fine. - Mm. - And got on with stuff. - When I was deciding what I wanted to do with my life, that's when my depression really sunk him. I would sit at home; everyone else went to work, and I'd be alone at home. - Life throws a curveball at you, and suddenly all your plans have gone out the window, and you've got all these people who are telling you, you can't do this, you can't do that. - That's when I turned to darts. Whenever I felt down, I'd go out to the dart board. And I used darts as my medicine for depression. (LIGHT ELECTRONIC MUSIC) It's a time to be alone and not think about anything. For me, it was something that took me to a happy place. And that was about the same time that I started playing pub darts. - When you're going through the mental issues, it's important to find something that you can focus on. This gets you out of the house. Start socialising again and starting to try and live a life. - Up until a few years ago, I was the only registered wheelchair-bound player in New Zealand. - I met Rob about four and a half years ago. He put a post on a Facebook group advertising people with disabilities who may be interested in taking up para darts. He invited me down one Friday night, and that's how it all took off. - Which leads me to where I am now ` starting disabled darts in New Zealand. (GENTLE GUITAR MUSIC) - I've got two children. Bailey, time to get up. My daughter, Bailey, who's 12. Connor. Time to get up, buddy. And my son, Connor, who's just turned 6. Time to get up. Let's go. Now. Following my separation, I've got 50/50 custody week on, week off with my kids. Do you want me to make you breakfast? 'Before my wife and I separated, 'I had challenges that I'm still facing today.' Nutri-Grain? 'The separation added to the depression.' I worry that my kids are affected by the challenges that I have. Eating your breakfast? I'm just trying to do my best as a father. What are you doing at school today, Connor? - I'm doing math. - You like maths? - Yeah. - You don't like many subjects at school, do you? - Mm-mm. - No? - That's what I said, it's boring. - Sometimes the boring subjects are good. - He puts a lot of time into his kids, too, of course. - Have a good day at school. - They're all pretty close ` the three of them. - Cuddle? - They help Rob around the house. - Love you. - Love you. - Have a good day at school. Two years ago, I purchased my car, and ACC purchased and Abiloader, which is a device in the boot that automatically comes out and picks up my chair and puts my chair in the boot. It's a really neat device. (BRIGHT MUSIC) The way I used to do it was I used to have to pull my chair apart and throw it in the back seat. Um, so it became a bit of a challenge with the kids and the dog. Milo, here! Come on, here! My dog, Milo, was a rescue dog. He's become a comfort dog. By being there for me, he's helped me with depression. Milo. Come here. He kind of senses when I'm having a bad day. (BRIGHT MUSIC CONTINUES) There's not many places we go without each other. He goes to work with me. When I was going down the path of looking at a new career, it dawned on me that I'm going to have to be behind a desk, or be a receptionist, or be in the office. So I enrolled in the Diploma in Architectural Technology. - Yeah, so this is the entry way for that shop we were looking at in King Edward St... - I was the first person in a wheelchair to graduate from that course. Because it's a new internal fit-out, we need to incorporate accessibility as much as possible. First of all is the new entryway to the building. - Robert and I ` we've been working together for about seven years. Rob is one of our lead team members. He coordinates with the staff and with the other consultants, the engineers and whatnot. We need to have that accessibility requirements pretty much as a standard from the get-go. (PHONE RINGS) - I can educate other people how a layout works and doesn't work. Cadzow Design. Rob here. Accessible stair. Accessible stair, minimum tread is 310mm, maximum pitch of 32 degrees. Everything from accessible parking, access to the building, stairs, lifts, bathrooms, giving my experience of being in a wheelchair, I can incorporate accessibility, showing them how it's going to work by demonstrating. - The example he puts up for his family and kids is very positive. He can achieve anything. (DISTANT CHATTER) - New Zealand ParaDarts was always on my mind to gain interest and to start something here in New Zealand so that we can compete with the rest of the world and start running our own tournaments. - It was a bit of an unknown for me when I started playing. Without being disrespectful, knowing some people back in Australia that play darts ` I thought it's mainly bogans and... people that you may not sort of really want to associate with. I didn't know. Then being involved, meeting everyone, most of them are really nice people. From Rob's perspective, it's been good for him to have someone like himself who is in pretty much the same situation as him in terms of the level of the injuries. And for me, it's been good playing with someone that is fairly inspirational to me, because Rob's a pretty good player. And it gives you something to aim for to try and get to the same level. - In 2019, I had an email invite to Belgium to participate in the very first World Championship for the Disabled Darts Association. Following that tournament, COVID hit. We got put into lockdown, and online darts was introduced to the world. - We'll introduce, firstly, all the way from New Zealand at 6 o'clock in the morning, it's Rob Gillan. - Hi, guys. The way online darts works is instead of having the opponent beside you playing on the same board, you are communicating through a digital device and camera system. And it's streamed live on Facebook. - Rob's opponent tonight hails from St Helens. It's 'Bully Boy' Michael Smith. - Hi, guys. - Pleasure to meet you. And, you know, play against you. It's awesome. (CHUCKLES) Because I had won the British Disabled darts online tournament, my prize was to play the current world number one, Michael Smith. - Rob, you require a four. - Whoo-hoo! Got a leg off Bully Boy. Even though I ended up losing 3-1, it was a huge achievement to get one leg off... now the current world champion. It confirmed to me that I needed to start something here in New Zealand. And so this weekend is the very first New Zealand ParaDarts tournament. It's very important to me. Something I've been working towards for the past two or three years. I just want it to go smoothly. It's my baby. (CHUCKLES) (GENTLE GUITAR MUSIC) - Anyway, ladies and gentlemen, welcome. We are hosting New Zealand's inaugural ParaDarts Tournament here today. (CHEERING, APPLAUSE) - The way the tournament will work is everybody will play against everybody. Only the games against your equal classifications will count. So wheelchair playing wheelchair, that game will count towards your final point. - Jody's my name. I'm from Auckland. Uh, my first tournament. So a few butterflies. Today, I wish everyone the best and see where we end up. - Playing in this tournament here, it's great to have met the other para darts players that have joined up this year. Some of the challenges that players like Rob and myself faced because of the level of our injury being T4, um, is stability. I can't hold my arms out without either counterbalancing with my other arm or resting my hand on my leg to try and stay fairly stable for throwing the darts. - For me because I've got core muscle strength, I can sort of support my own body weight. Other athletes like Patrick and them ` they have to use the non-throwing arm to keep their weight and then throw the dart as well. It's all about chair position for me, sitting upright, making sure my brake's on, and then just sort of taking that deep breath and trying to relax. Relax, breathe and throw the dart. - I think everyone's enjoying it and having a good time. It's good seeing my parents here supporting us, and my brothers turned up for a wee bit, so it's good having support. I'm hoping that I win the wheelchair section, but it's the unknown. We'll see at the end. (PENSIVE MUSIC) - This is the most games I've ever played in one day, so mentally I'm all right for the next few rounds, but, you know, in a tournament environment, you do get knackered. So the upper body's a bit sore today. But that's what you do for the love of the game. - It hasn't been going too bad. I mean, the games that I've lost have been against either Rob or the other standing players. Able-bodied people, or even the standing para darts players ` they throw their darts; they walk to the wall. We throw our darts; we've gotta use the old arms to go to the board. So it does catch up with ya. (APPLAUSE) - Jesus. That was... - Well done, mate. - Hey, man. Good man. Well done. - In the wheelchair division, in third place ` Jody Adriaanse. (CHEERING, APPLAUSE) - I'm not as good as Rob and them at the moment, but I'm sure with, uh, hard work and a lot more practice, I'll get there. - Runner up is Otago's Patrick Morrison. (CHEERING, APPLAUSE) - In terms of upcoming tournaments, leaving at the end of November, travelling to the UK for ParaDarts World Championships and ParaDarts World Masters. - And the winner, also from Otago, of the inaugural 2023 ParaDarts Championship ` Rob Gillan. (CHEERING, APPLAUSE) - Thank you. - Well played, Rob. - Thank you. - Go, Robbie! - I think it's a good stepping stone for disabled athletes in general. Um, for New Zealand to put an event on at such short notice, really, I think it's a phenomenal job that they've done. - Say para darts! - ALL: Para darts! - Sweet. (APPLAUSE) (CHUCKLES) (UPLIFTING MUSIC) - It's just great being able to follow Rob from this little 14-year-old paraplegic, wet behind the years to this guy now who's a top darts player, and I'm really looking forward to following how he goes in the UK. - I mean, he's strong; he's got his kids; he's got a good job. He's got his house. Everything's starting to work out for him. - You want some sauce? Tomato sauce or mustard? I've always hoped I would inspire people to get out and about and don't take no for an answer. Do what you want to do. There is darts in New Zealand. Approach me. Contact me. I hope I've inspired other people to dream big and never give up. (UPLIFTING MUSIC) Captions by Jessie Puru. Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air.