Vicky Macqueen: my brush with death inspired me to found didi rugby Vicky Macqueen was a full-back for the Red Roses from 2004-09. Three years ago, as a mum of two and a qualified Level Three coach, she launched didi rugby to “spread the gospel of health and fitness to little ones all around the world”. The exercise programme has gathered pace. This month alone has seen the launch of didi rugby South Warwickshire, with the help of England players Amy Cokayne and Charlotte Pearce, while Craig Hunter has turned didi rugby Reading into a full-time franchise. On Saturday 19 May, England Women’s World Cup-winning coach Gary Street will head up the latest didi rugby franchise launch, with the first sessions commencing at 9am at the Twickenham Stoop, the home of Harlequins. “I’m really proud to be involved with didi Rugby and to bring the values of the business to the Twickenham and Richmond area,” said Street, who will have support at the launch from England great Maggie Alphonsi. Rugby World interviewed Macqueen last year and discovered that but for her exceptional fitness levels, stemming from her rugby and PE teaching background, she might not have been around today. This article appeared in our September 2017 edition… WE ALL HAVE our Sliding Doors moments, when a 50:50 decision takes our life down a totally different path, but few are as seismic as the day in 2013 that Vicky Macqueen decided to go to A&E because a scratch on her shin had become infected. “I’d been to the local walk-in clinic where they gave me antibiotics, but I’d been sick so they’d suggested I go to hospital and have them intravenously,” says Macqueen, who as Vicky Massarella won 23 England caps at full-back from 2004-09. “I went home and it was touch and go whether I bothered going; I had a four-month-old and 18-month-old and it wasn’t convenient. But later in the day I went to the George Eliot Hospital in Nuneaton. My blood pressure was a bit low but I didn’t have any real symptoms to be concerned about. Then a specialist came in who wasn’t happy at all. ‘Something’s not right,’ she said. So they sent me for extra blood tests.” Two hours after entering A&E, Macqueen’s blood pressure had plummeted and she was fighting for her life in intensive care. “I almost went into cardiac arrest. Lots of consultants saw me and I was really scared. My leg was really bad and this doctor was telling me, ‘You are really ill’. I had a morphine button for the pain but I refused to be sedated because I wanted to just focus on being okay and surviving, with my two little ones at home.” That was a Saturday night and by the Monday, with her lungs failing, they were still pumping stuff into her heart. The infection was up to her quad, red and swollen, and they decided to amputate her right leg above the knee. “I signed the forms, … Continue reading Vicky Macqueen: my brush with death inspired me to found didi rugby