Hear first-hand from parents and adults with experience of Enable Ireland services.
Gabriella and her family came from South Africa to Ireland six years ago when Gabriella was just 12 years old. Gabriella has a condition known as Arthrogryposis, she is unable to walk independently and is a full time wheelchair user. She began attending Enable Ireland services in Sandymount shortly after her arrival. Now 18 years old, Gabriella is in her final year of secondary school and is sitting her Leaving Certificate this summer. By her own admission, Gabriella is sports mad! She is Sports Captain & prefect in her secondary school and is planning on studying sports following her graduation later this year.
As her mum Debbie tells us, this wasn’t always the case. “When Gabriella first started attending Enable Ireland her fitness level was quite low and working with the occupational therapist and physiotherapist they set goals to improve her fitness and support her independence. An initial goal would have been to push from the bus stop to home, for example.” Debbie says Enable Ireland provided great assistance at this time. “The team were fantastic working with Gabriella and setting her goals to reach. They were really inspiring and motivated her to want to do more. About two years ago, Gabi tried out basketball on a local court near where we live.
She spent hours & days trying to get hoops. One of Enable Ireland’s physios encouraged & arranged for her to see the Ballybrack Bulls, a local wheelchair basketball team, playing a match and this inspired her to get more involved with wheelchair basketball."
Gabriella then joined a wheelchair basketball team based in Killester and quickly progressed to the senior team. The pinnacle of her achievements to date was representing Ireland on the National Women’s team. Known as the Emerald Rollers, Gabriella has twice togged on the green shirt to play for Ireland and is looking forward to many more opportunities to represent Ireland at home and abroad in the future.
She recently visited an open day for Paracycling and thinks she might give that a go to! The guys at Cycling Ireland were very welcoming and encouraging!
Gabriella says, “Having a physical disability in a mainstream school can be difficult to make friends to socialize with outside of school. My Basketball team mates have become friends. So getting involved in sport has helped me to get fit and make lifelong friends.
After Leaving Cert, I would like to explore a couple of sports because I will be studying in the area of sport, this will benefit my understanding and hopefully encourage others to give something new a go!”
Gabriella has lots of sporting hopes for the future and representing Ireland in the Paralympics is a long term goal - so watch this space!!!
If you are interested in getting involved in wheelchair basketball please contact IWA Sport
