Jacob's story

Hi, my name is Jacob & I am 15 years old. My CP is in the form of spastic quadriplegia & I use an electric wheelchair for mobility.

This year I recently got involved with one of the spastic centre’s programmes called Ignition mentoring. Ignition mentoring involves a group of teenagers with CP like myself who buddy up with an ING employee (mentor), my mentor is Mat he’s a great guy to hang around with. We get together every second Tuesday evening & do really cool things, like outings to the zoo, record a song, have sessions on different topics about life & our future once we leave school. The best thing so far was a ski trip to Jindabyne & Thredbo for five days.

This ski trip was my first big trip without Mum & Dad and my first trip to the snow. The first couple of nights I was really homesick and felt like I needed to go home. With all the support from Mum, Dad, carers and mentors I pushed through and boy I’m glad I did.

Now onto the skiing, IT WAS AMAZING! As we drove up towards Thredbo I saw the snow-capped mountains, I started to get really excited. It didn’t take long for me to settle down and I started to feel anxious and worried about how it was all going to happen. It was cold but not too bad, four layers of clothing kept me warm. I met the ski instructor, Paul, what a great guy. He took me over to the sit ski’s and explained how it was going to work.

We took it easy at the start and I got used to it. The feeling was amazing, it wasn’t like anything I had felt before. It wasn’t like being in a wheelchair, or a car it was in a league of its own.

Just as I was getting better at steering/leaning from side to side to assist steering, Paul asked me if I wanted to use the small ski lift, nervously I looked at the ski lift and wondered how would they get me on. The next thing I found myself saying yes, even though my heart felt like it was going to explode. Paul reassured me it would be fine and was, bar the little mishap at the top. As the ski’s hit the snow they pulled us towards the edge. I thought we were going to go head over heals, but we gathered ourselves and made it a jump. WELL! Had to do my first jump at some point, I mean it wasn’t that big only 1.5 m and maybe it was better being unexpected .

As the day went on I felt that I was getting better at it. We went over a few small jumps and runs to end the day and boy even though tomorrow was going to be even bigger I slept well that night.

The  second day skiing was awesome. After we finished all the planned skiing, including some wall carving and jumps we got to the bottom, Paul asked “Do you want to go up one last time?” I replied yes. He then turned to another instructor and said “Lets take Jacob down ‘Highnoon’”. As we were heading up Paul pointed to a steep part of the mountain and said “that’s the one we’re taking”, my heart started thumping again, my heart was getting a real workout this trip. When we got to the top of ‘Highnoon’, which I later found out was a ‘black run’ which was an expert level slope, I was comfortable because I knew I had Paul behind me.

The run was amazing, we took it slow but gained quite a bit of speed by the end. What a buzz and what a way to end my skiing adventure.

This experience and life changing activities was only made possible through the unselfish, kind and supportive actions of all involved, the staff of the spastic centre and the carers, the ING staff & mentors and the DWA Instructors, especially Paul. Many involved did so as volunteers and through their efforts gave not only me but all involved this opportunity.