A 13-year-old woman who was informed she would by no means stroll or speak will this week climb Australia’s tallest mountain.
Eva Kalpidis, who lives with cerebral palsy on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, suffered a serious stroke at simply 10 days outdated, after which her dad and mom had been informed by among the nation’s main medical doctors their daughter would by no means stroll or speak.
“It was just so unexpected and obviously incredibly unsettling,” mum Stacey informed news.com.au.
“I still think about it now and can’t quite fathom it. It’s the kind of thing a parent never expects.”
The prognosis and injury brought about to Eva’s tiny physique was devastating — however when she watched her youthful brother take his first steps aged 18 months, she grew to become decided to do the identical.
“Her brother stood up and started to walk at one, and Eva watched him toddling around and stealing her toys, and from that moment I could see the determination in her little face,” Stacey stated.
“She’s always been focused. She’s got guts and she’s got grit — that showed from a very early age.”
Later this month, Eva will traverse Mount Kosciuszko in a wheelchair as an envoy for the Cerebral Palsy Alliance. She will undertake the climb alongside her mum and aunties underneath the identify Team Sunshine.
The group will embark on the hike simply days after Eva’s first day of highschool, and some months after a corrective surgical procedure to Eva’s hip final 12 months.
“She’s been in a wheelchair ever since that latest surgery, but that didn’t stop her from wanting to climb,” Stacey stated.
“If anything, we’ve only had to slow her down and remind her that recovery takes time.”
Team Sunshine has already raised greater than $80,000 that may go in direction of a state-of-the-art fitness center facility to assist with remedy for these dwelling with cerebral palsy — and donations are nonetheless open.
Eva herself has undergone “every type of therapy imaginable” to help in her aim, together with hydrotherapy at six weeks outdated, physiotherapy twice each week, speech remedy and a college readiness program that her mum says was instrumental in permitting her to “live day-to-day life”.
Still, Stacey stated she by no means doubted her daughter, describing her as “like a bull at a gate”.
“I always knew she would walk,” she stated.
“She was never going to take no for an answer.”
Originally printed as 13-year-old Eva Kalpidis to climb Mount Kosciuszko in wheelchair
Source: www.dailytelegraph.com.au
