Watson family's Team Angel Wolf continue to raise awareness about son's disability in most unique fashion

Sport360 staff 14:00 12/07/2016
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  • Where there is a will...: Nick Watson and his son Rio complete another fitness event together.

    Every weekend for the past nine plus months, the family has been taking part in runs, swims, cycles, marathons, triathlons and duathlons – all to raise awareness for people with disabilities.

    At the centre of their inspiration is their son and brother, Rio. Despite having his gross and fine motor skills compromised by a rare disease called 1q44 deletion syndrome, the 13-year-old has completed over 1,000 kilometres in fitness events with his father Nick.

    The duo has faced crashing waves and blinding dust storms, but not once has Rio ever relented. “Every kilometre, every met, he’s laughing. He absolutely loves this,” said Nick.

    When Nick and his now-wife Delphine moved to Dubai in 1996 with just Dh4,500 and a backpack, they could have never seen their current life coming.

    Nick, a former Royal Marine and fitness expert, started by opening a gym to improve the health and fitness of the UAE community.

    Everything changed when Rio was born in 2003. Six months in, he began having seizures, the cause of which was unknown to Nick and Delphine at the time.

    They were forced to search everywhere for answers and nearly four years later, they discovered the rare disease that had been crippling Rio.

    Knowing their son would have to lead a different type of life, the Watsons chose to become proactive and created Team Angel Wolf – Rio is “Angel” while younger sister Tia is “Little Wolf” – to raise awareness for children with special needs.

    “Life has taken a very different angle for us,” Nick said.

    “We kind of thought, when Rio came along and a few years in once he was diagnosed, we had two choices as a parent: you either find a way to live with a child with disabilities or you can crumble under the pressure of life expectancy and life is going to be very different.”

    The Watsons first started a programme to bring disabled children to Nick’s gym, as well as events to engage the community. Then, out of nowhere, the family was hit with another blessing in disguise.

    A lump was found in Nick’s colon and his first goal after recovering was to return to his first love: triathlons. But when his training wasn’t going as planned, Delphine came up with a brilliant idea.

    “My wife woke up one morning and said ‘why don’t you do it with Rio?’”

    So Nick and Rio completed their first race together, the Dubai International Triathlon, in November 2014, with Nick pushing Rio in a kayak during the swim portion and riding with him in a special bike during the cycle.

    They followed that up with the Dubai Challenge Triathlon in February 2015 and since September of last year, they’ve taken part in some sort of fitness event every weekend, with the total now over 30.

    Nick’s determination has rubbed off on nine-year-old Tia, who followed her father’s lead by doing the Giant Duathlon Series with Rio in December.

    That all culminated with Rio, for the first time ever, going solo and completing his own Giant Duathlon Series – a 250m run, 1.5km cycle and 250m run – this April.

    Team Angel Wolf continue to tell their story with talks to schools and believe even more can be done to raise much-needed awareness.

    “Like anything, and Dubai is a great city for this, when there is change, it happens quite quickly,” Nick said.

    “Where we are at the moment is a huge leap forward from where we were. Where we’re going to be in the future, it’s going to be a huge change as well. It has progressed and heading in the right direction.

    “It needs to come in different forms. What we’re doing is just one story. There needs to be more of them and engage on a personal level.”

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