PRESS RELEASE - Ame Barnbrook will
get to the Paralympics – with help from friends
With the help of friends and supporters,
Paralympic hopeful Ame Barnbrook this week launched her new website ‘Ame’s
Army’ as she looks down the road to representing Australia at the 2012 Paralympic
Games to be held in the United Kingdom.
The remarkable 21 years old was born with
Phocoamelia, meaning she has only the lower half of her left leg, a small foot
and three toes – no other limbs. She uses her toes for eating, writing, playing
the trumpet and fulfilling her passion for sailing.
An accomplished trumpet player, Barnbrook completed her HSC and won a sports scholarship to
Wollongong University, where she studied for her Bachelor of Creative Arts with
a major in Sound and Composition. She graduated on the December 14 2009.
As far as can be ascertained, Barnbrook,
who started sailing as a seven year old, is the world’s most profoundly disabled sailor going
for Paralympic selection in London 2012.
Barnbrook has
full confidence she can go the whole way and says: “It’s about what I can do, not what I
can’t do. My disability is continually judged before my abilities have been
recognized - and I like to prove people wrong!”
The plucky sailor/musician has already
racked up some notable sailing results, including fourth place at the 2009 IFDS World Championship in Singapore and
third at Sail Melbourne, (Grade 1 Olympic and Paralympic Classes) with her crew
Lindsay Mason.
In January, 2010, the duo achieved second place in
Australian Access Championship, a class sailed by able-bodied and disabled
sailors. She is now at the point where the dream of
representing Australia at the Games is becoming a reality. This is no pipe
dream.
Her choice of ‘weapon’ for the Games is
the two-person SKUD, a fast skiff-like Australian designed boat sailed by both
able-bodied and disabled sailors.
To make it to all the Paralympic selection
events, Barnbrook, like others aiming at elite sporting competition, needs
financial assistance to achieve her goal. And like other Paralympic hopefuls,
the campaign is more expensive because it involves a small team of people to
travel with her, due to her disabilities.
The Ame’s Army website is the instrument
to help raise much needed funds to assist Barnbrook in her mission. On the
site, you can read Barnbrook’s inspirational story, about her ‘Army’ and how to
make a tax deductible donation in Australia.
By sending the below link to friends and
anyone you think may be able to make a contribution, you will help Ame and
Lindsay compete at the Paralympic selection events.
Go to: www.amesarmy.com.au
Follow Ame’s activities and chat with her
via her blog: http://amesarmy.blogspot.com/
Di Pearson
