The 45-year-old was playing football for Perth at the end of July when he suffered a brain haemorrhage while on the field. 

After receiving scans at Launceston General Hospital, he was flown to Royal Hobart Hospital where he remained for three weeks, one of which was spent in the high dependency unit.

For someone who is used to running up to 20 kilometres every day, it represented unfamiliar territory.

“The unit is very enclosed and you’re pretty much just alone with your headache,” he said. 

“When my condition improved, they got me into another room, where I had a view of Mount Wellington.

“It looked beautiful all covered in snow, but I began to worry about whether I would be able to do this year’s Point to Pinnacle.”

While Mr Campbell’s haemorrhage was found to be nonaneurysmal, doctors initially struggled to find a cause for the bleeding.

Nearly two weeks after he was admitted, an MRI revealed a blood clot on his left transverse sinus. The clot – which was initially described as substantial – had steadily decreased throughout the past two months.

Mr Campbell was officially discharged from the hospital’s outpatient program earlier this month, upon which he was careful to play down his exercise plans.

“When I was discharged, the doctor said no high-risk activity for six weeks,” he said.

“Footy was over for the year and I didn’t have any plans to take up dirt bike riding.

“I asked if I could run, and he said it was OK as long as I didn’t keep my blood pressure too high for too long.

“It pretty much meant I couldn’t do the sort of training I had been doing.”

About a week after he left hospital, Mr Campbell completed a five kilometre run as part of parkrun, which he said left him feeling “a bit funny”.

He has since been working his way up to longer distances, now running anywhere from 20 to 40 kilometres per week. Mr Campbell said a love of running was no longer his only motivation.

“I’m really grateful to the staff at the Royal Hobart Hospital,” he said.

“If I get to the finish line, it will be for them.”

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