James Bartlett, the 15 year old son of Sgt Kerry Bartlett who is stationed at Riverina Police District, will be the beneficiary of this year’s Golden Boot Touch Football Carnival, which was played at the Narrandera Sportsground.

On August 3 this year James was playing in the Junee Knockout Rugby League carnival when during a tackle he dislocated his knee.

The dislocation saw all but one ligament torn off the bone and his main nerve and artery severed. As a result he required emergency surgery and received a vein transplant which caused many complications and saw him in ICU for a week.

James stayed at Wagga Base Hospital for a further three weeks undergoing a further 10 surgeries.

He was flown to Westmead Children's Hospital, where he spent the next six weeks and had a further five surgeries. This included skin grafts and two attempts at a reconstruction.

Unfortunately they have been unable to reconstruct James’ knee or reattach the nerves, leaving him still unable to move his foot or toes, in addition to having no feeling from his knee down.

James returned to Wagga Base Hospital the night before his 15th birthday and after one more week he was able to go home.

The road to recovery will be a long one ahead for James as he still has a number of surgeries planned, with the hope that he will be able to lift his foot so he is able to walk unaided.

James has shown maturity and resilience well beyond his age and his determination has seen him move quickly from being unable to sit up for any length of time to now using crutches.

Kerry was able to stay by his side in hospital every night with his father and little sister travelling to Sydney every weekend.

As anyone who has been in a situation similar can verify there is not only the financial strain of regular travel, time off work and time in hospital, but the emotional strain quickly adds up.

The long term costs for medication, renting / buying items that allows for James to be at home and unforeseen medical bills will continue for many years ahead.

This year’s Golden Boot also featured the Douglas Kristian Nyholm Spirit Award. It was based on the team that embraces the spirit of the day the best and automatic entry into the quarter finals!

The great Doug Nyholm has been and still is a stalwart of the GoldenBoot. He, along with Narrandera’s Bridget Smith were instrumental in reviving the once revered event after a short hiatus in the 90s. The basis for what the event is now can be largely attributed to Doug.

At the time of the Argus going to press the result was unknown but a further report will appear in next week’s Narrandera Argus.