The road to London 2012

This is the crew that I row with to represent Australia at the 2009 Rowing World Championships in Poland. I am in the first seat from the left and I have cerebral palsy. I have lived my life not thinking of myself as disabled, my cerebral palsy is mild and affects my gait on my left side. I would never let my disability stop me from doing anything that I wanted to do. CP is not an excuse to live a life less lived. Each member of my crew has a different disability. We row as an adaptive crew as part of the Australian Rowing Team. I learnt to row just over a year ago, and in that small amount of time I have worked extremely hard to make the Australian team. I row 5-6 mornings a week starting at 5:30am and I go to the gym 5 afternoons a week in order to do weights or cardio sessions. All the training has paid off and I can now say that I am the fastest female rower with a physical disability in Australia. I have found rowing to be an amazing sport with people inspiring me every day. There are not many people that can say they have represented their country and I am proud to be one of the few who say that I did. I don't know if I inspire anyone but my family at the moment, but the hope is I will inspire someone when I make it to the Paralympics in London 2012.