Darren Kenny gets a hero's welcome (From Salisbury Journal)

Darren Kenny gets a hero's welcome

6:00pm Saturday 20th October 2012 in News By Karen Bate

VERWOOD paid tribute to Paralympic sensation Darren Kenny OBE after hundreds attended a special party at the Heritage Centre to meet their hero on Saturday.

Amid a sea of flags and cheers from the crowds, Mr Kenny was greeted in his home town with a hero’s welcome.

The 42-year-old cyclist won a bronze medal in the Individual Pursuit and took silver in the team sprint – both in the C3 category – at the 2012 Paralympic Games.

Mr Kenny started racing at the age of 11, but in 1988, at the age of 19, an accident at the Tour of Ireland while descending the Wicklow Gap put paid to his able-bodied career He damaged his neck, and a series of accidents after that exacerbated his condition, leaving him with a traumatic brain injury and partial spinal lesions.

Mr Kenny, who grew up in Dorset and has lived with his family in Verwood since 1998, goes for bike rides in the New Forest with his son Brandon, 14, sometimes on a tandem cycle.