By Kefa Senoga
Tuesday, May 14, 2024, began like any other day for Frank Okello. As usual, he woke up early to do his routine morning exercise. However, he was not able to complete that run. Okello fell into a pothole, fracturing his right leg.
“As I lay on the ground in severe pain, passers-by, including bodaboda riders, gathered around me, asking how they could help,” Okello recalled. “I requested to be taken to Allan Galpin, and that’s where they took me.”
Allan Galpin is Uganda Christian University’s (UCU) health center.
After assessing Okello’s injury, a chip-off fracture of the right calcaneus bone, the medics at Allan Galpin referred him to Mukono Church of Uganda Hospital for further treatment.
As the pain subsided, Okello started thinking about the future of his education at UCU, where he is studying on a sports scholarship. What would happen if he did not recover fully to participate in the track races? Would the university cut short his studies? These and more were the unanswered questions ringing in Okello’s mind. He feared the worst.
Despite the many fears, at least the one of paying the hospital bills was not among them. The bills were wholly covered by UCU, where Okello is currently pursuing a Diploma in Business Administration.
In June, when he went back to the hospital for a check up, the medics told Okello that his recovery was progressing well, and thus he got the greenlight to start light exercises to rebuild his muscle strength. In August, the doctor cleared Okello to start jogging again.
Okello’s has been a life of full dependence on his talent.
While in Primary Seven at Onyakede Primary School in Lira district, northern Uganda, Okello pulled off a stunning performance while representing his school for the district athletics competitions. It was at that event that he was spotted and recommended for a scholarship opportunity for secondary school studies at Mukono High School in central Uganda.
However, Okello left the school after one year because he said his single mother, Akoli Milly Grace, could not afford the transport costs that her son incurred to report to school at the beginning and to return home at the end of the term. He, therefore, joined another school near his home in Lira.
From then on, thanks to his sports talent, Okello was recruited and studied at four different secondary schools on sports bursary, until he completed secondary education.
For instance, after Senior Two, Okello changed to another school that equally offered full bursary because he needed more competition in the field events.
“While at Premier Progressive Secondary School in Lira, our athletics coach who was also coaching another school persuaded me to change to that other school because he felt it offered more ground for tougher competition both in athletics and academics,” Okello says.
While in Senior Four and as an athlete for the national schools athletics competitions,
Okello won gold medals for the 10,000meters, 5,000 meters, 1,500metres and 800 meters for his school, Namakwa Secondary School.
It was while at one of the national athletics schools competitions that UCU coaches Timothy Kabuye and Ivan Wesonga identified him as a possible sports scholarship recipient at the university.
Under the UCU scholarship, Okello first acquired a Certificate in Child Development from Uganda Martyrs Seminary, an affiliate of UCU. After that course, he joined UCU for a Diploma in Business Administration, where he is currently in the final year of study.
In 2022, Okello was the overall winner of the Annual UCU Guild Run, running 8km (5 miles) in 25 minutes.
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