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From a coma to Hong Kong 7s: The 'unbelievable' Abi Burton story
The HSBC SVNS Series is a melting pot of inspiring stories from a whole host of different backgrounds. For instance, Brazilian playmaker Raquel Kochhann, a two-time Olympian, was recently featured on RugbyPass TV telling her motivating account about her successful recovery from breast cancer to playing for his country again.
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She is not alone in beating the odds with Great Britain player Abi Burton another example of a player going from fighting for life to starring back out on the rugby field. It was spring 2022 when the now 24-year-old Tokyo Olympian was in crisis.
Buton was having seizures and spent 25 days wrongly sectioned with a misdiagnosis. Eventually, she was diagnosed with autoimmune MDA receptor encephalitis, an illness where the body mistakenly attacks the brain.
Her agitated state resulted in her being placed in a medically induced 28-day coma. Two years later, she had just completed a joyous walk around the stadium perimeter with his GB teammates when she stopped by the Hong Kong Stadium tunnel to chat with RugbyPass.
“Oh God, I must be over 100 now,” she chuckled when asked what her selfie count was after her team’s ninth-place play-off win over Brazil was followed by a delightful mingling session with fans, including those decked out in fancy dress on from the famed South Stand.
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“Everybody wanted to support us and we love it. We love the support. That is what matters to us the most. It’s amazing. You don’t get to experience anything like this wherever you go. Probably the only similar one is Dubai but it’s not as big as that. It’s super special. It’s the last one that is going to be here so we just made sure we took everything in.”
No one would begrudge Burton from taking everything in given her onerous sacrifice to make it back to rugby, a story that is now the subject of a HSBC documentary that will soon premiere. “Honestly, I wouldn’t be able to do it without my teammates, without my family – they are a really big contributing factor for me to be able to get better.
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“You see a lot of people who have this illness who can’t really ever walk or talk properly again and they have to have family members look after them for the rest of their lives, but I was really lucky that a year on I was sat in the stands cheering the girls on and a year on I am now playing international rugby again.
“It’s unbelievable and just the belief from the girls thinking I could still do it, that’s what kept me going because there were a lot of times where I thought this was too big of a mountain for me to climb.
“You really just go down to rock bottom physically and mentally so without the support of them rallying around me I probably wouldn’t have been able to come back and then when I finally got named on that team sheet it was a super special moment.
“I was diagnosed with a rare brain illness that affects one in 1.6million people. It can come from anything. It can come from a bite; it can be autoimmune, and it can affect anybody and it’s really important for me to get that message out there because I was undiagnosed.
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“I really struggled, and I nearly lost my life because I was undiagnosed and the fact I have this platform now to be able to share with people, I need to be able to do that and I need to be able to spread awareness. It’s really important that no matter what struggles me and my family went through that I can talk about it and share it.
“When I think about it I’m basically repeating everything that I have been told from my mum and my dad because I actually don’t remember that time at all. The first thing I remember is waking up from the coma and not really having a clue what had happened.
— Hong Kong Sevens (@OfficialHK7s) April 12, 2024
“But I have a good support network around me when sometimes I do struggle still and having them around me really helps me so it allows me to be able to share my story.”
What is her story’s legacy? “That this is a new version of me, I don’t have to be like the old version. A lot of things happened and I don’t have to try and be Burty. I’m Burty 2.0 now, so that’s what is what my message is.”
Back to the rugby. Brazil scoring a late try last Saturday cost Great Britain quarter-final qualification despite their 17-12 win, but Sunday’s 14-5 success in the ninth-place decider has kept Burton’s eighth-place team two points clear of the ninth-placed Brazilians on the HSBC SVNS Series table heading into the final leg in Singapore before the Madrid Grand Final.
“It’s massively important for the standings, for our confidence moving forward, especially if we come up against them, we know that we have got two really good games under our belt and they ain’t pretty so we know we can grind out two really good wins, so it is massively important,” figured Burton.
“The scoreline was a factor on Saturday; we knew how much we needed to beat them by to get into the quarter-finals. Sunday, the main focus was we just needed to beat them, we needed to stay ahead of them because if we didn’t we would be going to Singapore on the same points. If we did beat them we’re two points up, so we always knew the context of the game going into it.
“We will take a mix from Hong Kong. In our first two games against New Zealand and France, we feel like we could have done better to put ourselves into a position to get to the quarter-finals, but also there are loads of positives to take from the weekend with grinding out two really, really great wins against Brazil, beating South Africa and just being able to move forward.”
Hong Kong 7s was frustrating for Brazil, their 12-17 loss to Great Britain leaving them with a 0-3 pool record…
– Here's Raquel Kochhann with Liam Heagney ?? #HK7s #HSBCSVNS #SVNSSeries #OfficialHK7s
Catch all the action live on RugbyPass TV https://t.co/z90EMWX9EI pic.twitter.com/973pVp6k93
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) April 6, 2024
Comments on RugbyPass
Ben Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
19 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
7 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
19 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
9 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
9 Go to commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
45 Go to commentsIt couldn’t have been Ryan Crotty. He wasn’t selected in either World Cup side - they chose Money Bill instead. And Money Bill only cared about himself, and that manager he had, not the team.
26 Go to commentsYawn 🥱 nobody would give a hoot about this new trophy. End of the day we just have to beat Ireland and NZ this year then they can finally shut up 🤐
19 Go to commentsTalking bout Ryan Crotty? Heard Crotty say in a interview once that SBW doesen't care about the team . He went on to say that whenever they lost a big game, SBW would be happy as if nothing happened, according to him someone who cares would look down.. Personally I think Crotty is in the wrong, not for feeling gutted but for expecting others 2 be like him… I have been a bad loser forever as it matters so much to me but good on you SBW for being able to see the bigger picture….
26 Go to commentsThis sounds like a WWE idea so Americans can also get excited about rugby, RUGBY NEEDS A INTERNATIONAL CALENDER .. The rugby Championship and Six Nations can be held at same time, top 3 of six nations and top 3 of Rugby championship (6 nations should include Georgia AND another qualifying country while Fiji, Japan and Samoa/Tonga qualifier should make out 6 Southern teams).. Scrap June internationals and year end tours. Have a Elite top six Cup and the Bottom 6 in a secondary comp….
19 Go to commentsThe rugby championship would be even stronger with Fiji in it… I know it doesen’t fit the long term plans of NZ or Aus but you are robbing a whole nation of being able to see their best players play for Fiji…. Every second player in NZ and AUS teams has Fijian surnames… shame on you!!! World rugby won’t step in either as France and England has now also joined in…. I guess where money is involved it will always be the poor countries missing out….
86 Go to commentsNo surprise there. How hard can it be to pick a ball off the ground and chuck it to a mate? 😂
3 Go to commentsSometimes people just like a moan mate!
9 Go to commentsexcellent idea ! rugby needs this 💪
19 Go to comments9 Brumbies! What a joke! The best performing team in Oz! Ditch Skelton for Swain or Neville. Ryan Lonergan ahead of McDermott any day! Best selection bolter is Toole … amazing player
14 Go to comments