>> Andrew: It's fun being a twin, heaps of people say we look alike, I don't but
that's just people's opinon. No I don't think we have different personalities,
Lia do you think so?
>> Lia: No, I think we're mostly the same.
>> Andrew: Apart from our gender and Lia having cerebral palsy but yeah.
>> Evelyn: They were born at 26 weeks and so that was very early
and it was quite terrifying to be honest.
>> John: We were told that it was the prematurity and you know,
things would be okay and she'd develop and,
>> Evelyn: Lia wasn't actually diagnosed with cerebral palsy until she was 12 months old.
Bit of a shock I think to be told at 12 months
that your child has cerebral palsy.
>> John: You don't know what's going to happen and noone can tell you the severity
and you know, how bad it's going to be
and it's just a total loss of control.
>> Evelyn: I still get really, obviously, really emotional
you know eleven years down the track.
>> Cheryn: Cerebral palsy primarily affects a person's ability to control movement and
to control posture. It affects you from birth so it affects
your ability to learn to move, to get up, to explore, to experience,
to look after yourself, the range of affect can be very minimal
in that most people wouldn't really notice you were having difficulty doing things,
right through to being completely profound where you just can't do anything for yourself.
Bit higher.
>> Lia: It's hard in one way because you don't walk
which means you gotta have a chair to wheel around in,
but I'm lucky because I don't have one of the worst kinds,
I get to play a lot and get to do stuff that other kids
that have the same type of thing don't get to do,
so yeah that's good. I appreciate that very much.
>> Evelyn: She loves her sport, s he does a bit of wheel chair sports,
she loves her swimming.
>> Lia: Sometimes we go play tennis
>> John: She rides a modified bike that's, you know, really lucky
that she's able to do that. Very modified and supported.
>> Lia: I love painting.
I like playing sport and watching TV
and playing video games.
>> Andrew: She likes beating me
but she doesn't get to do that that much very often.
>> Cheryn: She's like any other normal ordinary child, the only difference is that
she's actually restricted to a wheelchair.
>> Andrew: She's told me this dream once that once she was in a dream and she could walk.
>> John: It's just the irony of her situation really,
she's an incredibly physical kid and yet she's trapped in a body
that doesn't really allow her to do everything she wants to do.
>> Evelyn: We're out there looking for help and you know,
we got the assistance through the Spastic Centre
and Lia's been there ever since she got diagnosed.
She's had physiotherapy since day one, she's had an occupational therapist
and both of those have helped her through her schooling.
>> Cheryn: We don't have short-term relationships with our clients,
as a rule you know if you get a child coming in to see you you're going to see them if
not constantly, you're to see them again and again, over many years.
>> John: You do get to know them very well and you do get very close to them
and I think that the continuity is really important too
in terms of Lia feeling comfortable, confident and in terms of them seeing the progression,
what's baseline or normal for your child and you know, how you improve that over time.
>> Evelyn: It was very painful for her
>> John: And then to watch them go through that pain
over a prolonged period of time is agonizing
>> Evelyn: She was in plasters for the first six weeks after the surgery
to give her a really good stretch and that was harrowing enough for her,
going through six weeks with you know, your legs straight without being able to move.
>> John: It's having like a newborn again and everyone's awake and everyone's affected,
the whole family's affected.
>> Evelyn: But you know what, you just go on,
you know it's part of our life, our daily life so yeah you learn to
live with it and it's a huge learning curve for any parent
that's been exposed to it. I think we've been relatively lucky with Lia,
we've had lots of assistance through the Spastic Centre.
The operation itself was successful so now we're actually working towards
strengthening her muscles by doing regular exercises.
>> John: If the therapist's not there there'd be no point doing the surgery because then
they're not going to do the therapy and the exercises
to have the improvements at the other end of the surgery.
>> Cheryn: For someone who had almost no activity happening in those leg muscles
prior to the surgery at three months she's managing to stand with assistance,
she's managing to move her legs, she's doing really well.
We've had a waiting list now for a long time at the Spastic Centre.
>> Evelyn: I know we've had to wait up to about a year.
>> Cheryn: If we had more staff, which obviously means more funding,
the children that we're seeing would not have to wait so long
for assistance and that would make the assistance more effective,
more timely, less frustration, less pain.
A better result all round.
>> Lia: In the future I'd love to become a chef
and maybe have a restaurant and Andrew could kind of help me do that.
>> Andrew: She's very important to me, so yeah thanks to all of you.
>> Lia: Thank you. 92