Micky Yule

A powerhouse personality as well as a powerlifter, Micky Yule has overcome huge odds having lost both legs to an IED and pushed himself to become a Gold medal winner in the Invictus Games. The next stop is the Paralympics and Rio.

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On 1st July 2010 Staff Sergeant Micky Yule, Search Advisor for The Royal Engineers, stepped on an IED.  Micky immediately lost his left leg and shattered his right leg completely.  

Immediately evacuated back to Camp Bastion, the right leg was removed before being repatriated to The Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham. Micky was in a coma for a week before being brought back to consciousness to face life as a double amputee with a broken pelvis among other various injuries.

During the long hospital stay, Micky was constantly thinking about what he was going to do with his life once recovered, knowing that he couldn't continue his Army career.

Micky had always been a fit, strong individual and over the previous 2-3 years, had started competing in Powerlifting events alongside his Army service, winning Military competitions before competing in National and World competitions as a Powerlifter, competing in all 3 disciplines.

The coming weeks were spent in various operations,  In total Micky has endured over 45 operations to date to get him back to health before transferring to Headley Court to start the long rehabilitation process.
 
Whilst at Headley he gradually regained his strength and learnt how to walk again with the use of prosthetic legs. The struggle to learn to walk was matched by his sheer determination to get strong again, even though he knew he couldn't compete as he had previously.

Seeing an opportunity to get back on the ladder, Micky learned of a Paralympic Potential Day which included Powerlifting as a descipline. This was his opportunity to show people what he could do. The day went well, although he was still weak from recent operations and not being able to train since injury, and although he lifted everything they had, for some reason it did not go any further than that day. Micky was left bitterly disappointed, but it gave him the determination to carry on, to show them that they hadn't seen the best of him.

Following this, Micky learned of a Talent Identification Day being held in Scotland and went along. That day proved to be the start of the new road for Micky, as they recognised that he had the potential to go a lot further with this, and it gave him a chance to prove the doubters wrong.
 
Fast forward a few years on and, with a lot of perseverance, training and dedication, Micky is now in both the Scotland and GB team. During that time he still had varous operations, but he tried not to let them stop him training for any length of time, as he knew how hard he had worked to get there and was not willing to let his spot on the team go.
He has competed in recent major International events and is now placed 6th in the World in his weight category.

Micky's most important achievements to date would have to be competing in the Commonwealth Games in his home nation of Scotland, the only injured servicemen to even qualify from the 4 home nations, He finished 4th and felt such a sense of pride to be there with his fellow countrymen. 

Shortly after, were the inaugural Invictus Games, where Micky was a Captain of the Powerlifting Team. He won a coveted Gold medal, and was incredibly proud to be a member of the winning British Armed Forces Team. The Invictus Team went on to win the Helen Rollason Award for overcoming adversity at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Awards in December, to which he was grateful to be invited to as a Captain of the Powerlifting.
 
This year is one of the most important years of Micky's life, with 3 qualifiers to get selected for the Paralympics and Rio, its going to be tough but this is what he has been working so hard for.
 
That is Micky's story so far, but there is a lot more to be written. 

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