feature
on the same campus. They asked me
what I wanted to do, and I told them I
missed tennis and dancing. They told
me I could do both!”
For the next seven years, Suzanne
played wheelchair tennis, and was
I made a pact with myself that
I would do all I possibly could
with my life, because I knew
I had AVM. You have to be
resourceful, resilient.
selected to compete at the 1992
Barcelona Paralympics. Playing sport,
she said, was a celebration of having At 45 Suzanne suffered a their Adelaide farm but still does
finally achieving bladder and bowel catastrophic AVM haemorrhage, the bookkeeping, runs disability
control. which her doctors feared would kill awareness workshops, goes to the
her. Three of her vertebrae in her theatre and travels regularly. She has
error over several years, Suzanne lower spine were destroyed and her four grandchildren, and sees them
developed a regime of taking a spine was now severed, her rib cage often.
laxative and eating six cashews and sitting on her pelvis.
Through a process of trial and
Suzanne believes that, as
four dried apricots the night before “They said I’d never get out of debilitating as the AVM is, it fuels her
she needed to empty her bowel – a bed or be able to sit up again. I spent drive to complete as much as she can
regime she continues to this day. seven months laid-up,” she said. in the time she has.
Suzanne’s powerlifting career also
Suzanne was fitted with a thoracic
“I made a pact with myself that I
began by chance at a pre-Sydney brace that would hold her torso would do all I possibly could with my
Olympic Games conference in 1998. together. Determined to avoid the life, because I knew I had AVM. You
prospect of an indwelling catheter, have to be resourceful, resilient. I had
powerlifter for the Sydney Games, she cranked herself up a few degrees three kids on the ground that I was
and they asked me to try out. I was each day until she was able to sit, responsible for. I couldn’t put them
under 48 kg, and I’d loved doing a position critical for her ability to back. And Greg still loved me. It was
weights when I was in rehab, so self-catheterise. The nurses were very much, ‘let’s get on with it’.”
I did powerlifting for four years, sceptical, but to their amazement, competingat the Budapest World Suzanne hauled herself onto the Championships and the 2000 Sydney toilet, and self-catheterised.
“They said they needed a 48kg
Paralympic Games.
linkonline.com.au
These days, she lives away from
This article is supplied by the
Continence Foundation of Australia
- www.continence.org.au
incontinence and personal care
41