World Youth medallist Catherine Reid seeks funding help for surgery
British elite athletes are among those helping to fund a potential team-mate of the future who has turned to crowdfunding in the hope of raising enough money to cover the cost of knee surgery.
A promising junior sprinter, Catherine Reid claimed 400m bronze at the IAAF World Youth Championships in 2015 but has since struggled with knee pain. She hopes an operation to lower her left knee cap will allow her a future return to athletics, to add to early success which included a 52.25 PB set in Colombia, a mark placing her fourth on the UK all-time under-20 list.
"At age 17 back in 2015 I was in the height of my career (so far)," the 20-year-old wrote on gofundme.com. "I had the season of my dreams, winning the NatWest Island Games, getting my first Great Britain call-up, representing GB at the IAAF World Youth Championships, where I ran the race of my life, winning the bronze medal and achieving a time that put me in a position to see my lifetime goal of becoming an Olympian within my reach.
"It was all perfect, getting ready to finish my season by travelling to Samoa to represent my home, the Isle of Man, at the Commonwealth Youth Games. Then, things began to go downhill."
After being forced to withdraw from the final in Samoa, she took up a sports scholarship in America but the problem with her knee did not improve and she returned to the Isle of Man last year.
"After meeting a consultant in London, we have discovered that the problem is that my left knee cap is abnormally high, meaning it doesn’t sit where it should," she added. "Along with this my knee cap is not central, as the tendon (patella tendon) that should assist in holding my knee cap in place doesn’t attach in the correct area. I am to undergo a surgery which involves lowering my left knee cap, as well as realigning the tendon."
Reid says the surgery is set to cost around £8,500 and had raised £3,875 within the first 20 hours of her fundraising page going live.
Her gofundme.com page can be found here.
