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Kelly Brown is making up for lost time

Touch football has long been a passion for Kelly Brown so when she injured her knee while serving in the Navy, the idea that she may never play her favourite sport again hit hard.

Ms Brown, 40, fell heavily on her knee during a fire exercise on board HMAS Manoora in 1999.

“I tore all the main ligaments and damaged the patella tendon in my right knee,” she said.

“I was training to be a personal training instructor in the Navy at the time so sport was a big part of my life.

“It (injury) really destroyed me and it took me a long time for me to get over it.”

Ms Brown, who during her four-and-a-half years in the Navy was deployed to East Timor and Solomon Islands, was told she might not be able to walk properly again after undergoing surgery to repair her damaged knee.

She refused to give up on her beloved touch football, returning to the field in 2016 with the USQ Springfield social touch football team.

The mother-of-two has been making up for lost time since, representing USQ at the Northern Uni Games in 2016 before being chosen to play at the National Touch League for the South Queensland Sharks in 2017 and South West Queensland Swans in 2018.

This week, she has been competing for USQ’s mixed team at the UniSport Nationals Div 2 competition on the Gold Coast.

“I missed the game so much and wanted to get back playing sport again,” she said.

“I worked extremely hard on my fitness and in rehab to make sure my knee was 100 per cent before getting back on the field again.

“The fact I am running on a football field again is quite remarkable, so any chance I get to play is a blessing.”

This is the second time Ms Brown, a third-year paramedic student at USQ Ipswich, has competed in USQ colours at the national level.

She said she hoped other mature-age students would be encouraged by her efforts.

“Age shouldn’t be a factor because if you want something in life, and it makes you happy, then you must go for it,” she said.

“Every time I go on the field I want to do the best I can, not only because I don’t want to let my teammates down, but because I also want to make myself, my family and my uni proud.”

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