Examiner Community Award: Young Personality, Courage Award, Arts Award
BALAL Din contracted an illness that nearly claimed his life in March 2000 when he was just 21.
The college teacher was struck down with potentially lethal meningococcal septicaemia, a bacterial infection in the blood stream. The disease often occurs suddenly and can rapidly prove fatal.
He was in hospital for a year and doctors gave him a slim chance of surviving.
But Balal, of Thornton Lodge, fought against the odds and, remarkably, he pulled through.
The people who had treated him said they had never seen anyone who had symptoms as severe as his survive.
As a result of the illness, Balal lost all of his fingers and toes as well his right foot.
But he did not let it ruin his life.
Now 30, he said: "I am absolutely overwhelmed to win this award and it wouldn’t have been possible without the support of his parents, staff at HRI and Jimmy’s in Leeds and all his colleagues. They have been tremendous."
Balal now works for Kirklees College as a motor vehicle mechanics teacher at the Brunel House campus at Old Fieldhouse Lane.
The person who nominated him said: "He copes so well. To see is to believe. He undertakes all practical work that you would expect to see in a workshop, truly amazing."
Other nominees in this category were Tracey Hoyes plus
Alanna Delahaye and Glynn Bates
Share
