My double life: Neurologist Helen Murray on ice hockey and brain injuries

In My double life, Kiwis share the side hustles, the hobbies or the dual careers that keep them busy. Helen Murray is a neuroscientist based at the University of Auckland’s Centre for Brain Researchand a representative ice hockey player who once captained the NZ women’s team, the Ice Fernz.

“My research looks at the biology that links repetitive head injuries and neurodegeneration or different types of dementia. In another part of my life, I am an ice hockey player. I captained the Ice Fernz from 2016 – 2022. I still play competitively, but I’m slowly pulling back from the international side of ice hockey because my work is demanding more of my time.

How I got into this work is a personal story.

On one hand, it came through sport. I’ve injured my ankle pretty badly and had to have it operated on but as for head injuries, I’ve only had a couple of smaller concussions. I’ve never had a head injury that’s put me out for an extended period of time, although I have a couple of friends who have. We wear helmets and cages which protect the face, but they can’t protect our brain from bouncing around.

But I think the real reason I chose medical research is because my dad, Brent, was diagnosed with cancer when I was 15 and passed away that same year. I think it made me a little bit cynical about medicine. I was frustrated, I think, because it couldn’t save him.

That got me quite interested in research and how we can make things better. I’d always been interested in science, but Dad’s death galvanised me to want to be in research rather than clinical medicine.

So, I credit Dad with getting me interested in research and I credit Mum, Moira, for keeping me in research. My mum has an insane work ethic and I think I inherited that from her.

I thought I wanted to be a vet. And then, at some point, we had to put our cat down and I was like, ‘I can’t do this. I don’t want to do this.’

I am studying chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a form of dementia associated with repetitive head injuries. It’s been most associated with sport, but it could arise in those subjected to domestic violence or those experiencing blast injury in the military.