Shane Thrower knows first-hand how quickly life can change.
While training for his first New Zealand Ironman, he was hit from behind by a car travelling about 100km/h, suffering a traumatic brain injury, multiple broken bones, two dislocated shoulders and paralysis down his right side.
The crash left him in hospital for three months and facing a gruelling recovery.
He had to learn to walk and talk again, while memory loss meant he would often forget visitors moments after they left. Friends and family began leaving messages in a notebook so he could remember who had been by his bedside.
“When I got hit, I was actually retraining as a high school teacher,” Thrower said.
“I’d spent 10 years working as a cookery instructor at Christchurch Men’s and Christchurch Women’s prisons and after that I decided that I wanted to retrain as a high school teacher and stop people ending up in prison.
“My goal was to work with youths.”
Thrower in hospital during his lengthy recovery.
Thrower eventually became a teacher and began working at Linwood’s Kimihia Adventure Programme – an alternative education initiative supporting at-risk young people not attending school regularly, through a collaborative network including families, agencies and the wider community.
There, he met Aaron Webb and the pair became lifelong friends.
Webb is now the team manager for the Crusaders but is still passionate about working with – and making a positive difference for – local youths.
“Aaron rang me one day and said, ‘I’m looking at doing the New York Marathon with a group of guys, raising money for Te Tahi Youth, would you be interested?’,” Thrower explained.
Thrower had to learn to walk again after his accident but has gone on to run ultra marathons and complete the Coast to Coast.
“He knew that I love running – I run six or seven days a week, I’ve done ultra marathons in New Zealand and overseas. And I love working with youth, so I was very excited about the opportunity.”
Webb also recruited former All Black captain Kieran Reid and players Ryan Crotty and Colin Slade – also all former Crusaders.
They must raise $10,000 each to achieve the lofty goal of $125,000 between them, to help Te Tahi Youth fit out new premises.
Te Tahi Youth provides free health and wellbeing services for young people aged 10 to 24 across Christchurch.
The organisation operates as a one-stop shop, offering everything from medical, sexual and mental health care to counselling, youth development programmes and employment support.
Aaron Webb and Shane Thrower have been mates for more than 20 years. Photo / Anna Heath
The new hub will be based at Eastgate Mall.
Thrower and Webb hope their fundraising efforts will help create a welcoming, purpose-built space where young people can access vital support under one roof.
“Te Tahi Youth approached me because I’ve done a couple of other fundraising, longish runs and I was definitely keen to help out. And I get to do the New York Marathon as well, which is a bit of a bonus,” Webb said.
“And then I kind of was like, I don’t really want to do it on my own, so I’ll see if I can get a few other people on board as well. So it’s kind of grown from there.”
Webb said Thrower’s story was “so inspiring”, and it made sense to invite him.
“I found him to be one of the most positive people I’d ever met in my life, and he’s gone through a lot,” he said.
“And then Kieran Read, who is my daughter’s cricket coach, so I managed to con him into it; and Ryan Crotty, who I work with every day at the Crusaders, and Colin Slade.
“It’s a bit of an all-star team and then me.”
Former All Blacks and Crusaders stars Keiran Read, Ryan Crotty and Colin Slade will join Thrower and Webby at the New York Marathon. Photo / File
Webb said the central aim was to raise money for Te Tahi Youth.
“Somewhere north of $100,000 would be great; if we could get up to $150,000, that would be even better – that’s what they need to finish their project here,” he said.
“And the other part of it is to help tell their story a little bit more in the community and raise their profile and partner with them, because they’ve got lots of young men and women in the program that can benefit through connections and mentoring and those kind of things.
“For young people, it’s such a challenging time in their lives presently, and these young people that Te Tahi work with are highly at risk so if we can be doing something in the community to help them grow, to help support them, to help them understand how to get out of the cycle that they might be in at present, I think that’s really important.”
Webb said Thrower was the perfect person for some of the youths to learn from.
“Not only because of his injury, but he’s also had some pretty serious illness – and he just comes out the other side, and he’s so positive and so enthusiastic.
The car after hitting Shane Thrower while he was on a training ride.
“And he shows young people that, no matter what your circumstances, you’re in control of changing that; no one else can do it for you. They can help you and assist you on the way, but you have to take the lead, and I think that’s where he really inspires a lot of people.”
Read, one of the most-capped All Blacks of all time, said he was “happy to be part” of the marathon team.
“Shane’s so inspiring,” he said.
“For a guy who’s been through so much in the past and now you see him and he’s full of life.”
Read said training was going well and there was “a good vibe” in the group.
“I guess the reality of having to go over and run a marathon is kind of sinking in,” he said.
Thrower, who also helped found the Reefton Distilling Co, famed for its Little Biddy gin range, said he was keen to help youths whenever and wherever he could.
“When you work with youth and when you give them opportunities and you see the light turned on in them, that’s what I love,” he said.
“Them just realising that they can do this – and believing in themselves.
“Even in our business and we employ students in the after-school to come and do labelling for us. I’ve loved working with them and just seeing them grow into lovely young adults from the challenges that they’ve had.
Reefton Distillery Company founders Patsy Bass and Shane Thrower. Photo / NZ Herald
“And because of my traumatic brain injury, I’ve travelled similar roads to them with the challenges I’ve been dealing with in life. Just giving them someone that they can lean on, because quite often they don’t trust people; they’re very, very wary because they’ve been let down so many times.
“So it’s just giving them a shoulder that they know that they can communicate with and someone that will believe in them; it’s very important.”
Thrower was excited to run the marathon, and also for the difference his efforts could make.
“It’s very important for youths in Christchurch to have this space. It’s phenomenal, this building … and going forward as well, even after the marathon, just being able to still be involved would be just fantastic.”
Te Tahi Youth general manager Fiona Kay said the new hub was crucial – as was its location in East Christchurch.
“Which is an area where we’ve got a large number of our young people based – about 40% actually who live in the eastern suburbs,” she said.
Thrower is determined to do everything he can to inspire and help youths face their own challenges.
“So being based here at Eastgate Mall is just a fantastic opportunity.
“Obviously it’s close in terms of transport and access, and there’s lots of parking, lots of buses that come here. But there’s also a degree of anonymity being in a mall – you could be coming to the mall for any reason – and we’re upstairs and sort of out of the way a little bit, so it’s discreet and private.
“This space specifically will have four clinical consultation rooms so that our doctors and nurses can see young people, as well as a couple of other rooms for things like counselling and time with the social worker.
“I like to think of what we do here is, we’ve got an amazing team of staff who work with our young people and support them and walk alongside them to help them be the best version of themselves.”
Kay said just over $500,000 had been secured to kit the space out.
“The runners have got the task of finding the remaining amount that we need to complete – no pressure boys,” she said.
“But what we’re really excited about is the profile that they have, and that they can bring to us as an organisation, and the amazing work that the staff do; and the other one as well is to have an ongoing relationship with them and opportunities that can come from them.
More than 55,000 people will run in this year’s New York Marathon. Photo / 123RF
“We’ve got a lot of young people who obviously love sports, love the Crusaders – but the experience that they’ve got from their previous roles as well and what they can bring to the young people is the bit we’re also really excited about.
“I think what they’re doing is an awesome thing.”
The 2026 TCS New York City Marathon is on November 1, 2026.
It marks the 50th anniversary of the iconic event and drew a record-breaking more than 240,000 applicants. Only about 1% of people were accepted.
Event organisers expect more than 55,000 people to participate on the day, with more than two million spectators across the city’s five boroughs.
To donate to Thrower’s team effort – click here.
Anna Leask is a senior journalist who covers Christchurch issues and national crime and justice. She joined the Herald in 2008 and has worked as a journalist for more than 20 years with a particular focus on family and gender-based violence, child abuse, sexual violence and homicides. She writes, hosts and produces the award-winning podcast A Moment In Crime, released monthly on nzherald.co.nz.