>> Neville: Hi I'm Neville, this is my son Ryan he's 7,
my wife Rhonda, my daughter Andie, 14 now, 13?
>> Andie: 13 dad, 13.
>> Neville: 13, going on 25.
We're from Maroubra, what else?
Andie's just had an operation in October.
I think it's her third operation, this is a major operation
and she's just started rehab, she'll be doing rehab for probably another
six months I think.
She's doing really well, hydrotherapy every day,
everyone's very impressed with her attitude and what she's up to,
or up against.
>> Rhonda: Look it was very difficult, Andie didn't walk until she was six
and that was a very special occasion because Andie had practised in her room
without us knowing and she called us in
and she proceeded to walk to a little box that she had in the middle of the
room.
So that was [a] very exciting time and yeah no look, before that Andie used to walk
arond on her knees and move everywhere by just shuffling on her
knees, we didn't think she'd ever walk.
So it was pretty exciting when we found her practising on her own secretly.
So yeah, no that was just a lovely moment.
Lovely.
Oh absolutely, you know we get to a good place and Andie's very mobile
and obviously it affects her life, she's very social, she's at a mainstream school so she
has lots of friends.
So she gets to a stage where she's very content and happy
and then we go through this big operation
and then yes, it sort of takes us back quite a bit
so yes, so it's sort of starting again so it's very hard to,
how would you say?
>> Andie: To deal with.
>> Rhonda: Well, to deal with but it's you know,
it's just like starting again, you know learning to walk,
going through all those different processes.
>> Andie: For me it's just very frustrating I mean even sometimes I get urges to run across
the room but then I've got to remind myself that I've
just had an operation and I'm not the way I was before and
so I've got to deal with the fact that you know, I've got to start
again from where I was before
where I could dance and do all the other things that girls do
and then I've got to go here and then I get very emotional at times
but then I've got to pull myself together.
>> Neville: I think just her attitude and her hard work that she puts into her recovery
every time she has an operation as we said before it sets her back
but she gets up, takes her punches and gets going again,
she's just always going, never gives up, striving forward always.
That's the proudest I am with her, she's just always at it.
>> Andie: I keep thinking back to when I was six
I mean, when times get tough like this I keep thinking that and thinking of the time
only at the age of seven I had decided after my first operation that
I'm not going to cope with it, you know, just not being normal anymore and
I want to walk so I just did because I didn't want to do it anymore.
So I got my jewelery box and put it in my room and just walked to it
because I was sick of looking like the way I was looking
and so that's what I think of when times get tough, so yeah.