Back from the brink: Reborn Austeja has the world in her sights

When Austeja Auciute closed her eyes in the Kardiolita Kaunas on April 22, she was unsure what the world would look like when she woke.

She even wondered if there’d be a world again. A tumor on her brain was discovered after she went for an MRI scan and her doctor, Vytenis Trumpickas, delivered the bad news.

A sparring camp in Poland saw her pick up an injury. She had become sick of the constant niggles, the fatigue, the headaches. When a back injury was being assessed and medics examined her entire upper body, the tumor was detected.
A further visit to a neurosurgeon, Karolis Bareikis, brought about her worst fears.

She may have to learn to walk and talk again. Memory loss was mentioned. A nine-time Irish champion during her days at Finn Valley Amateur Boxing Club and a World Youth bronze medalist in 2011, boxing was the furthest thing from her mind.

“My whole world, I just thought everything was over,” she says now, days after winning her sixth Lithuanian Elite title. “I was on my own. It all happened very fast. I was getting injuries for no reason and I injured my back in Poland. I got sent for an MRI. They were doing an MRI on my whole torso and they saw some black holes in my head. The day of the surgery, I was thinking I mightn’t wake up again.”

A six-hour procedure was performed by Professor Tamašauskas. Auciute woke up and recognised the man at the bottom of her bed, Dr Bareikis.

“I remember him!” she thought. “Thank God, things are good, but it was tight. I used to get headaches the whole time and I couldn’t turn my head. I had fluid on my brain around the tumor, which was why I couldn’t turn my head, and they said it was in a very dangerous place.”

The day after her operation, April 23, was the 50th birthday of her mother, Laima.

“I felt like I was born again - I got a new birthday,” Austeja says. A subsequent biopsy was required and the tumor was confirmed as not malignant.

Her grandmother, Regina, and brother, Dovydas, provided instant support while her mother visited as soon as she was released for rehabilitation.

Her coach in Lithuania, Vincas Murauskas, accompanied her to the hospital. He waited anxiously too for news of the follow-up consolation.

“I wasn’t thinking about boxing,” Auciute says. “Boxing was the last thing on my head. About five days later, the doctor came back and said I could start training in six weeks and in six months I could box again.

“I thought that it was all over. I didn’t believe him at the time. I didn’t even think to ask about sports after a tumor in my head.

“I went back to him for a consultation. I wasn’t healing for a long time. I had bad headaches for about two months. I couldn’t sleep for a long time either. I was paranoid about it all and I was on sleeping pills too.

Only Jason Quigley and Steven O’Reilly have won more Irish crowns for a Donegal club than Auciute’s nine-title haul. She returned to her native Lithuania at the tail end of 2015.

In 2016, Auciute competed at the World Championships, where she lost out to Irish boxer Kellie Harrington. She spent the guts of four years attempting to obtain Irish citizenship before giving up on the process in 2015.

Auciute had been resident in Ballybofey since the family moved from Lithuania. She’d been schooled at Sessiaghoneill National School and at St Columba’s College in Stranorlar, but the exhaustive process to obtain citizenship proved too much red tape.

With an offer to box for her home country also on the table, she packed up and headed back to Lithuania, where she now boxes under Murauskas, although her former coach at Finn Valley ABC, Conor Quigley, remains in close contact.

Her father, Vaidas, first took her to Finn Valley ABC when she was ten years old. In November 2009, Vaidas was killed in a car accident at Knox’s Corner, just outside Stranorlar. HIs name is inked across her shoulder blades; forever with her.

Boxing has been her life and last week she saw off Aleknaite Renata in the women’s welterweight category. Her next assignment is to get ready for the Women’s World Championships, which have been postponed until March.

Auciute says: “Training has been top. I wasn’t expecting to be as good as I am. I’m more motivated and I’m looking forward to testing myself out soon. The December ones would’ve been too early for me, but I’ll definitely go in March. I haven’t boxed internationally for three years and I’m excited already.

“I came to 66kgs from 69kgs so making weight was tough enough. I added a lot of weight during the rehab so it was tight.”
The world has rarely felt better for the 24-year-old. “I still can’t believe it,” she says. I am grateful for the sport, of course, but most importantly for life, I appreciate everything a lot more than I did.

“Sport is just sport now. It used to be my whole life. I enjoy it now. I don’t be as nervous getting ready for Championships anymore. I was just enjoying the journey and I’ll love the journey getting ready for the worlds.”