Getting in the swim

Press, 23 May 1977, Page 5

Getting in the swim

Colin is 14 years old and suffers from cerebral palsy, which he has had since birth.

Colin, who lives at Shirley, seems to be a bit of a battler. He has two youngger brothers and reckons he wants to “be treated like the other children.” His main problem today is a slight lack of coordination and the need to use crutches.

Colin’s parents first realised his problem when he was about nine months old. This was followed by seemingly never-ending visits to doctors and specialists.

This is still going on today, although he visits a physiotherapist only a couple of times a year. There has been a lot of

help from various concerned groups, particularly the Cripplied Children’s Society. He also attended the School for the Physically Handicapped, in Worcester Street, Christchurch. Colin first went to a kindergarten school in Invercargill and it was about at this stage that he taught himself to crawl on his hands and knees. He also has a few vivid memories from those early school days.

There was the time he was put in a school sandpit to play with the other children. Somehow he was forgotten and stayed there for about half an hour, when his mother pulled him out. Colin ‘ also remembers his first spanking at the tender age of three. He got into trouble for breaking things by throwing them down the stairs.

Things have changed a bit since then. His main interest now seems to be modelling kits and he possesses more than a dozen model planes, boats and tanks.

He is in third form at Shirley High School this year, where he is studying mathematics, chemistry, physics, -biology, social studies, English and technical drawing. It seems that he gets on fairly well with the other children, who have nicknamed him “Crutch Cargo.” One happy memory is from his scouting days. He became a cub scout at the age of eight. Since then he has been up Mount Herbert in a sedan chair, tried to light a few fires and do all the other things that boy scouts do. Now he is looking forward to his fifteenth

birthday — the time he can get his driving licence. One of the main troubles with cerebral palsy, or spasticism as it is often called, is a certain lack of physical coordination, although there is absolutely nothing the matter with the mind. Beside the basic problem, Colin seems to be a happy and healthy child. But there are problens for the future — such as choosing a career. The Saturday before last he went to see “Airport 77” at the Cinerama Theatre. Colin got in and out of that cinema just as easily as all the other school holiday children. He enjoyed the film and who knows? He might even decide to become an airplane pilot or movie maker.