Add Category
Luke McCallum was only 16 when he decided to join the Royal Australian Navy.
Born and raised in Broken Hill, Mr McCallum applied to be an electronics technician with the navy and had the paperwork filled out before his birthday.
"Pretty much immediately after my 17th birthday, I got the phone call and was offered an early position to join up and proceed down to the Royal Australian Navy Recruit School down in Melbourne," he said.
"I consider myself quite privileged to have started early."
In 2002, Mr McCallum was deployed to the Middle East.
During one of the training exercises, his team had to climb down a rope from a helicopter.
"I basically exited the aircraft from about 60 feet up in the air, fast roping out," Mr McCallum said.
"[I] did not land well, couldn't control my decent as I normally would, so I impacted the steel flight deck very, very hard."
Mr McCallum broke multiple bones in his left leg and shattered his right heel.
"It was a serious accident, I got flown back home to Australia and spent three months in hospital in Perth," he said.
"I had quite a few operations on both of my legs to get me put back together again."
Getting back to service
After the accident, Mr McCallum was told he would be medically discharged from the navy, which he refused to accept.
So, he worked hard during rehabilitation to get himself back to a deployable status.
Mr McCallum headed back to the Middle East in early 2004.
"For me, I had unfinished business," he said.
"I needed to get back and finish my deployment over there, which I managed to do.
"I served for quite a few more years after my accident."
During the next 12 years of his career, Mr McCallum endured ongoing chronic pain and was eventually medically discharged from the navy in 2014.
Then in 2019, an infected blister compromised the metal plate holding his heel together.
The infection spread into the bone and the only option for recovery was a below-knee amputation.
Changing mindsets
The former serviceman battled with anxiety and deep depression after the amputation and during subsequent operations.
"The rehab and recovery was ongoing and very challenging," Mr McCallum said.
"Whilst I did see the amputation as a positive in respect to [not having] the chronic pain issues I had before with my right leg, it was still a very tough thing to deal with."
To manage the anxiety and depression, Mr McCallum tried adaptive sports, which are sports adapted to allow people with disabilities or injuries to participate independently.
He started in indoor rowing and said the experience helped change his attitude about being a person with a disability.
"I'm so much more than a guy with one leg," he said
"I am proud of getting out there and getting around as a person with a disability."
The Australian Defence Force's adaptive sports program allowed him to represent the country at the Warrior Games.
The international event is an adaptive multi-sport competition for current and former military personnel who may have been wounded or became ill during their military service.
Mr McCallum competed in indoor rowing, powerlifting, pistol shooting and sit-down volleyball at the games in Orlando this year.
He won two silver medals and one bronze medal.
"Adaptive sports has gotten me out there and thinking about my life and my injuries as a positive thing," Mr McCallum said.
He said the program helped improve his quality of life.
"[It's] something that enables me to be a better person," he said.
"Whether it's being a better father to my sons, or just being a good example to people that might see me doing adaptive sports, I can show them that these injuries don't necessarily need to hold you back."
The mental and physical benefits of sport
Chief psychiatrist for the Department of Veteran Affairs, Jonathan Lane, has a decade of experience as a soldier and worked as an archery team coach for the Australian Invictus team.
He said sports — specifically adaptive sports — were important for several reasons.
"When we think about mental health, it's really important to have these other kinds of things in your life," Dr Lane said.
"As a psychiatrist, for example, I can't just prescribe someone medication for something like PTSD.
"Because that won't give them all of the things that participating in sports, having good social connections, and even just learning and developing good emotional regulation skills for themselves, will."
Dr Lane said leaving the defence force and transitioning into civilian life can be challenging, especially when it is involuntary.
He said former defence personnel were not just leaving a job behind, but also a lifestyle and group of people who had similar thoughts, values and morals.
"If you've got medical problems and you can't work full-time, you've lost a huge opportunity to develop new social connections and have some purpose and therefore meaning in your life," Dr Lane said.
"By engaging in sports … you've automatically got social opportunities, social connections and ways of improving yourself."
Get our local newsletter, delivered free each Friday