Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
Hello, and welcome to the Spotlight Special Event. I'm Mick
Fanning and this story is very close to my heart.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Chumpy.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Yeah, it's about my good mate Alex Pulland. But everyone
called him Chumpy.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
No one had more to live for, no one had
more to give.
Speaker 4 (00:28):
That's where the love story began, the dream couple, and.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
It's such an amazing story.
Speaker 5 (00:33):
His favorite place was the ocean.
Speaker 6 (00:35):
It was quite an incredible.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Mess dyed wild spearfishing Alex Chumpy Pulland was pulled unconscious
from the water.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Will make you cry, but it would definitely make you laugh.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
But he just had an amazing police online.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
He was a world champion snowboarder, an Australian Olympian.
Speaker 7 (00:52):
A freaking brilliant snowboarder, two.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Time world champion.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
He was a brilliant athlete, motivated, amazing. He's wanted to
be everyone on that day, but that was nothing compared
to the kind of person he was. He never stopped amazingly.
Speaker 8 (01:07):
He's just a big, lovely guy.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
He was only thirty two when he died.
Speaker 5 (01:11):
I don't really think it will ever feel real.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
There are still days I can't believe he's not here.
Speaker 6 (01:18):
And their pans for the future with start a family, but.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Through what only can be described as an absolute miracle, try.
Speaker 4 (01:25):
And retrieve Chumpy Spim, Yes, go for it, go we
had to act.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Now part of Chumpy has come back to life.
Speaker 5 (01:34):
Baba Gee is a miracle.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Melody became pregnant with their child more than seven months
after his death.
Speaker 5 (01:43):
Chumpy's daughter.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Baba Chump.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
For somebody who has never met Chumpy, how would you
describe him?
Speaker 5 (02:05):
Actually can't put into words. You can't really describe Trumping
words like he just.
Speaker 9 (02:15):
Honest so.
Speaker 5 (02:20):
He just like you made him and you feel this energy.
You listen to his music and you just like it
makes you feel this kind of way, like he was
just so talented. Yeah, he honestly can't be summed up
with words.
Speaker 10 (02:37):
Now wat it?
Speaker 11 (03:09):
Eventually, all I tell myself is just to wait. Your
body's tense, It's got this electric energy in it, and
so everything just shuts down in that moment, and I
will just tell myself to let go. It's just explode
(03:37):
and can get so dizzy and get out. You tend
to lose a little bit of vision.
Speaker 9 (03:58):
You think.
Speaker 12 (04:05):
He was born and then that same year we went
to Lord How he was three months old. When we
went to lord Now and I'm have to tell you
his grandma, my mother was none too pleased about that decision,
but away we went.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
It's a beautiful day today.
Speaker 7 (04:31):
I'm going to sail around Tazy when I get down south.
Speaker 9 (04:34):
Don't see grandma.
Speaker 12 (04:36):
The boat life for the kids was was just wonderful
and it was a really good board for both the
kids to start their lives.
Speaker 13 (04:45):
John, we're doing no, not at the moment, my fresh done.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
It was really good.
Speaker 12 (05:02):
I think that it formed both kids to be thinkers
for themselves, rather than allowing somebody else to do that for.
Speaker 13 (05:11):
Them's my hero.
Speaker 5 (05:15):
He grew up sailing up and down the East Coast
with his parents on their yacht, and he learnt to
scoopid ive and snorkel when he was tiny. He was
just such a water baby before snow was even a thing.
Speaker 12 (05:34):
Good boy.
Speaker 6 (05:47):
Is fantastic.
Speaker 9 (06:00):
Jump jumps.
Speaker 13 (06:08):
Jump.
Speaker 12 (06:11):
Sally taught him to play guitar. Sal he was a
very musical. Tat him to play the guitar when he
was eight and he just didn't. He never put the
guitar out.
Speaker 5 (06:21):
He was a quick learner.
Speaker 6 (06:24):
He left me behind.
Speaker 8 (06:27):
He'd concentrate on one aspect of whatever he was learning
and just keep working on it until he got it right,
and then if he didn't get it right, he'd go
to bed that night and dream on it again.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
He was just.
Speaker 5 (06:56):
Always playing music like all the time.
Speaker 9 (07:00):
You can't start, you do, It's my favorite sound.
Speaker 14 (07:10):
He brought a little bit of that flare into his
snowboarding as well, which really helped him.
Speaker 12 (07:14):
We love it, you love it more, dese mo, Here
are folks top off mountainble off with copplers.
Speaker 13 (07:24):
Dam Mate, here are you going, buddy? Eating snow?
Speaker 2 (07:30):
For me?
Speaker 15 (07:31):
My first snow encounter was about as ozzie as it gets.
Speaker 13 (07:35):
And here.
Speaker 9 (07:37):
Is the mane star.
Speaker 13 (07:38):
Look up jump.
Speaker 15 (07:45):
My grandparents and my parents both started a skin snowboard
shop in Mansield.
Speaker 7 (07:52):
I don't coup, I'm right behind you.
Speaker 12 (07:53):
I think living in the ski shop certainly there was.
It was about the snow.
Speaker 13 (07:59):
That cuokie right.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
Legend.
Speaker 15 (08:05):
At around eight years old, my dad was able to
get me a snowboard snowboarder.
Speaker 7 (08:11):
There's chumped snowboarding.
Speaker 15 (08:14):
Back then, snowboarding was really fresh on the scene, and
from that sort of point on I transferred to snowboarding
pretty heavily and got my first taste of what it's
like to slide down a hill standing sideways, and pretty
much from that point on I was well. I became
(08:39):
quickly addicted to the adventure that snowboarding also allowed me
to have along the way, you know, not just traveling
over and competing and coming home, but there was the
whole journey to get there.
Speaker 12 (08:51):
His first trip as an individual was fourteen years old.
Are we driving down to the Tellomarine Airport? That's what
we all the whaling wall.
Speaker 7 (09:00):
Which is where you know, you kiss your kids goodbye.
Speaker 12 (09:03):
And he was just he was just a young man
with a with a snowboard in a backpack and not
much of a not much of a plan, like get
over there and try and do some you know, some
some racing. There was no team, there was no institute
of sport, no coaches, just a fourteen year old kid
on a plane. You know, how does he go in
(09:30):
that young he How does he get from the bottom
of a mountain to the to the race court? How
does he even find out that the races? How does
he know what time it's starting? It was just him
on his own, and yet he forged through it. He
pushed himself through it. And eventually got to the Junior
World Championships and did rather well. That's him, Jumpy, the
(09:56):
guy from Mensfield. He's lining up against. These people have
been been tutored in this since they could work.
Speaker 15 (10:03):
As a young guy hitting the tour, it was the
full underdog thing and I just wanted to prove myself.
Speaker 12 (10:13):
A lot of times when he was over there on
the World Tour, people thought he was Austrian.
Speaker 7 (10:18):
He wrote sport. Let's say Alex pull him from Austria.
Speaker 12 (10:22):
Because no one believed anybody could be from blooming Australia.
It's just red dust and kangaroos. You gotta ask yourself,
how did he do it? How did he get in
front of him? And it was because it goes back
(10:43):
to those years of sailing, and those years and being
a clear and thinking for yourself, and it goes back
to being an Australian person who who who was able
to be totally original in his racing.
Speaker 15 (11:00):
In the gate, there's intensity, there's nerves. You know, you're
constantly trying to think through how the heat might unfold.
But what works is to stay exactly where you are
right in that moment.
Speaker 7 (11:12):
It was a freaking brilliant snowboarder.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
He was.
Speaker 7 (11:16):
You know, you just make it happen.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
You don't become a great athlete from just going I
guess half asked. He was, Yeah, one hundred percent all in.
But that carried over into his personal life, into his friendships,
into his you know, into his love life, and where
it was just beautiful, like you felt like when you
were around him that you were his best friend at
(11:42):
that moment. It didn't matter how much, you know, it
felt like you were his best friend.
Speaker 9 (11:49):
Hello chum.
Speaker 5 (11:53):
Sometimes I just have a little sniff and say hello
chump and go about my day with the helmet on
my head.
Speaker 4 (12:05):
It is just the most fun, beautiful, like inside and
out hilarious, Like she's absolutely hilarious.
Speaker 16 (12:16):
That's good, describe her crazy fun makes a good margarita.
Speaker 5 (12:24):
Obviously we want to cover like just like organically talk
about how much shit Darling Shine talks about. So yeah,
we'll just slow don't do this intro again, should we?
Speaker 6 (12:42):
Sometimes the ship that she says, you're like, what's.
Speaker 5 (12:45):
My little brainstead Now, she's one of the brightest humans.
Speaker 16 (12:51):
Not bright in the he I mean like shining.
Speaker 5 (12:54):
Right, And we're finding how Shine.
Speaker 16 (13:00):
The most fun loving, would do anything for you, loyal, caring.
Speaker 17 (13:13):
She met Chumping towards the end of twenty twelve at
a party, how.
Speaker 5 (13:23):
At one of my best friend Laura and of his
birthday parties was her twenty first.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
I remember that once the party was over, Chumpy and
Elitie stayed behind and they were helping me clean up,
And I guess that's where the love story began.
Speaker 5 (13:39):
When I met him, I honestly was just like, Oh,
who's this snowboarder guy. He's probably just like a bomb head,
I don't know, but he's pretty cool. Like I was obsessed.
So I was like, oh, yeah, I just like love him.
Speaker 16 (13:59):
You don't have find that type of love. And for them,
it was instant so much.
Speaker 5 (14:09):
We kissed that night and it was just like history
from then on.
Speaker 4 (14:16):
Straight away, it was it was just on for them.
Speaker 5 (14:19):
They just like looked the part.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
They were like both stunning, both like so fun, both
so caring and loving and selfless.
Speaker 16 (14:27):
Their type of love doesn't come around. It's like one
in a million chances that you get that.
Speaker 12 (14:33):
That was a relationship like no other. You know, they
were just born for each other.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Those two.
Speaker 8 (14:42):
They were lovely together, really lovely together.
Speaker 5 (14:46):
I think it was just fate. We literally moved in
together straight away, and it was just like that was
the start of our the rest of our lives pretty much.
I guess.
Speaker 17 (15:01):
It just worked for them, and they had such a
connection and such a shared love that not many people experience,
I don't think, but they had this deeper level layer
to it.
Speaker 6 (15:17):
The perfect couple.
Speaker 14 (15:20):
Yeah, I do remember when when he introduced Elodie to me.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
And yeah, he was he was just he was. He
was just over the mood.
Speaker 7 (15:32):
Certainly, they complimented each other.
Speaker 6 (15:35):
He he.
Speaker 12 (15:38):
Was calmed by her. He was he was an athlete,
he was he was driven to be.
Speaker 17 (15:43):
First, he'd come home to Elody and he could just
totally relax because his whole life was so intense, heavy training, heavy, competition,
(16:03):
heavy everything, and he would get home and totally relax
and because Elity would just carry everything away and everything
would just be fun.
Speaker 5 (16:17):
And then he was winning like world championships and stuff.
Just a month or two after we got together.
Speaker 7 (16:24):
And he just started winning. It was plenty good.
Speaker 17 (16:27):
Multiple World Cup wins, multiple World titles, a multiple Olympian
flag bearer.
Speaker 5 (16:35):
Two world titles, and two World Championship wins. Or pretty
much back to back and then like a million World
Cup wins as well.
Speaker 12 (16:44):
So we were proud of him on so many levels.
But it was that being such a good human that
was what made us most prayer.
Speaker 18 (16:52):
Yeah, m hm.
Speaker 8 (17:10):
He's a lovely human being and he's always very nice
to people.
Speaker 7 (17:24):
So I'm proud of him and I miss him badly.
Speaker 5 (17:38):
Our relationship was just different and it was just so
special and amazing, and it's just yeah, I think it
was just fate.
Speaker 16 (17:49):
They were the perfect couple.
Speaker 5 (17:52):
We literally moved in together straight away and it was
just like that was the start of our the rest
of our lives pretty much, I guess.
Speaker 14 (18:07):
I spoke to him not long before he passed away.
It was probably the happiest I've ever heard him in
that last kind of period. He moved to the Gold Coast.
He was content with retiring and he talked about retiring
from the sport. He wanted to do other things and
he was really happy.
Speaker 7 (18:29):
We saw in that two things were going to now happen.
Speaker 12 (18:32):
One is he was going to focus on having his
young family, and the other eye felt quite sure was
we were going to see something happened with his music,
you know, on a more professional level.
Speaker 5 (18:47):
He was just always playing music, like all the time.
Speaker 14 (18:53):
He did play at my wedding. It was lovely to
have him there and be so involved in that for us.
I always used to ask him was he going to
go on the voice and you know, follow his fashion
in music.
Speaker 5 (19:11):
He would also just get really into spearfishing, surfing. Everything
he did wasn't really just a little hobby. He's just
so driven.
Speaker 6 (19:26):
Their plans for the future was to start a family.
To start a family.
Speaker 5 (19:36):
I think from the get go, we just always knew
that we would have a family, and that was just
the plan. IVF was probably always something we were going
to look at because I've got a low egg count.
We were not worried. We knew that we would have them,
so we weren't stressed about it, but we were definitely
trying and really wanting above. We were trying every month,
(20:01):
so every month I was hoping I was pregnant, and
it was pretty sad. Every month we'd get like the
negative test or something chump and I would be like,
damn it, but hopefully next month, you know, as many
couples do.
Speaker 7 (20:12):
Sounds silly to say you would have been the best
out in the world. But would have.
Speaker 5 (20:18):
He would have made sure he was.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Show dog.
Speaker 5 (20:25):
One week. And our friends up here staying and they
had a kelpie. I always wanted a dog, and Chumpy
wasn't as dog obsessed as me, but yeah, he was like,
if you wouldn't one, we'll get one. Like that's what
you do. We're about to have a family of got
the house, like we're going to get a dog.
Speaker 6 (20:41):
She's just the most beautiful dog.
Speaker 17 (20:43):
She's a kelpie and she's got the sweetest nature. She's
such a gentle dog.
Speaker 5 (20:49):
Chumpy and Rummy just had this mad connection. And I
was just always on the outer.
Speaker 12 (20:54):
She should be crazy, and it just sort of gave
you a small insight to what he would be like
with a kid. After Chumpy's accident, and that's you, Rummy
just took that upon herself to be by Ellie's side.
Speaker 5 (21:17):
I think I feel more sad for my dogs than
I do for me. I look at her sometimes and
I just see this deep sadness, Like I just know
that she's just like she was like pining.
Speaker 19 (21:32):
For him, just like see it in in her face.
She just sometimes she just looks so sad.
Speaker 7 (21:45):
What's in there?
Speaker 5 (21:46):
What's in there, lick the belly.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
I know he's gone.
Speaker 9 (21:55):
I don't know why it's ship.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
This up, but.
Speaker 5 (22:04):
Part of him's coming back.
Speaker 20 (22:07):
Rummy in here.
Speaker 5 (22:10):
Do you get it? Are you following? Are you listening
with those big ears?
Speaker 20 (22:16):
Rummy?
Speaker 5 (22:19):
What would I do without you? Rummy? H and you
Baba chop and you. I don't know who. How's it going?
Speaker 3 (22:45):
Are you?
Speaker 9 (22:48):
Mury yay hi high.
Speaker 5 (23:04):
Actually haven't been out to this spot since Chump's accident.
Speaker 21 (23:10):
This is a special place for you.
Speaker 5 (23:13):
I've never actually come out to the reef to have
a swim or anything. It's actually a little bit emotional.
I think it'd be really nice to go for a
little swim at Chumpies reef. Our life, it just was
getting better and better each day, especially the months before
(23:33):
his accident, because he, obviously with COVID, couldn't travel. So
we were just with my brother every day and we
were like in the surf before they'd be diving, I'd
be sitting on the jet skin. We'd just be hanging
out and we would genuinely look at each other all
the time and just go how good is this? Like
this is the best look where we live. This is amazing.
(23:56):
We're trying for a baby. Things couldn't get better, like
howl going to be to bring a bub into this world.
Sometimes I can look at all the videos and photos
I haven't just feel like just so happy and like
I'm not it's not emotional, and I'm just like, wow,
our life is the best, Like he's the best. How
(24:19):
lucky am I was? I? And then sometimes I just
can't even look at a footage at all. His favorite
place was the ocean, like one hundred percent.
Speaker 22 (24:39):
With the Act of July twenty twenty, we woke up
and we actually had friends coming up from Sydney, and
I think Chump had in his head, I'll go spearfishing
and catch some dinner for everyone.
Speaker 5 (24:53):
Then just before he drove away, I was talking to
him through the windshield. I was talking to him from
the garage and he was inside the car, and I
was like saying, do you want me to close the garage?
Like oh, press the bun or are you going to
And I was doing all these like hand gestures and
it's just like a stupid conversation, like one of us
should have just shut the garage and just gone about
our days. But this time was funny because he actually
(25:16):
got back out of the car and came up to
me and was laughing, and he's like, what are you saying?
And he was like grabbing me and gave me this
hug and he was like, you're so ditzy or something
like that. All I remember about that morning, other than
being in bed together, is that moment where he got
back out and like kind of gave me one more hug.
Speaker 17 (25:38):
I had come around to the house to help ability
and in the morning with some housework actually.
Speaker 5 (25:44):
And then our neighbor came to my door. She's a
member of the local spearfishing facebook page. Her and her
son came over and they kind of looked a bit panicked,
and they sort of ell, someone's been pulled in from
the reef this morning. It's on the facebook page, a
thirty something year old young man. I screamed out and
(26:05):
I said, Mom, We've got to get in the car.
Get in the car.
Speaker 6 (26:07):
The drive Elody down to the beach and there was.
Speaker 5 (26:11):
Already like ambulance and police and cameras and everything there.
Speaker 6 (26:18):
It's a funny thing.
Speaker 17 (26:19):
I knew since we pulled up, I knew it was him.
Speaker 5 (26:23):
My mom came running back at the up the beach,
and just the look on her face just kind of
said everything without words.
Speaker 17 (26:36):
I said, Elidy, that's Chumpy. It's Chuppy down on the beach.
I said, I'm sorry, sweetheart. It was disbelief, and she
wears she was numb.
Speaker 23 (26:58):
My mom called because you know, mum, what's going on.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
You're right, he's alright, it's jump all right.
Speaker 23 (27:07):
She's like there's been a tragic incident. And I was like,
you guys are okay, and she goes, Chumpy is dead.
Speaker 9 (27:16):
Where are you.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Reality? It was just on the ground and.
Speaker 16 (27:26):
A ball.
Speaker 24 (27:30):
Boiling her eyes out. I just knelt down and hugged
her so tight. They pulled the sheet off his head
from over his head, and.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
I have a for cat.
Speaker 6 (27:57):
You look peaceful, m h. He was very peaceful.
Speaker 18 (28:05):
I'll never get the image of him out of my mind,
you know. I held his head in my hands and
I spoke to him and I said a prayer over him,
and I'll never ever get that image out of my head.
(28:26):
If I could take your place, I would.
Speaker 6 (28:28):
It was such a.
Speaker 18 (28:31):
Sad thing and I just wish I could have taken
his place. Such a young person to die.
Speaker 5 (28:44):
Someone said to me, look, this is about to be
on the news. You better call his parents, You better
call his family, you better tell people before this is
on the news.
Speaker 12 (28:58):
We were sitting in this room actually, and we've got
a phone call for melody. It was quite she was
quite hysterical, and I couldn't really understand what she was saying,
you know what, what do you what? Because she wasn't
speaking in a normal voice. So I didn't think it
(29:19):
was a joke. I didn't think it was a prank.
That news was devastating on so many levels.
Speaker 5 (29:26):
M terrible.
Speaker 17 (29:29):
H h.
Speaker 7 (29:40):
I can't imagine us ever, I being with it. It
will never be the same, It won't be.
Speaker 17 (29:57):
M hm.
Speaker 18 (29:59):
M hm.
Speaker 25 (30:12):
And I told you to it and they shine and
I told you to the mane and I told you
to the balance.
Speaker 21 (30:23):
And I told you to me. Come now old you
love this?
Speaker 25 (30:29):
Wasted the the hell sne I'm great in it.
Speaker 20 (30:37):
Chants.
Speaker 26 (30:40):
Line Alex Chumpy, pulling this pulled from the water on conscious.
(31:00):
The thirty two year old was first spotted by another
diver on the seafloor at the Palm Beach artificial Reef.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
He didn't have oxygen mass here.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
As we understand, its free diving and spearfishing out.
Speaker 7 (31:12):
On the reef.
Speaker 5 (31:15):
We believe Chump had a shallow water blackout. Now that
it's happened, I'm hearing all the time that experienced divers
are having shallow water blackouts when you're underwater with a
weight belt on. Of course, Chump blacked out and just
sank to the bottom of the ocean. I like to
(31:39):
think that he was just doing what he loved, like
he would have just been loving it down there. I
find so much peace in knowing that he left in
the ocean because that's its favorite place.
Speaker 3 (32:11):
In July last year, Montor reef off this very beach
on the Gold Coast, a thirty two year old by
the name of Alex Chumpy Pullen.
Speaker 21 (32:20):
Died while spearfishing.
Speaker 3 (32:22):
He held his breath too long and passed out while underwater.
They call it a shallow water blackout.
Speaker 22 (32:33):
Now.
Speaker 3 (32:33):
At the time, there was a national outpouring of grief.
No one had more to live for, no one had
more to give. But Chumpy isn't completely gone, not yet.
Against the odds, his girlfriend Elidy became pregnant with their
(32:54):
child more than seven months after his death.
Speaker 21 (32:59):
How is that possible? Well, that it's quite a story.
Speaker 5 (33:21):
Sometimes I can look at all the videos and photos
I haven't just feel like just so happy and it's
not emotional, and I'm just like, Wow, our life is
the best, Like he's the best. How lucky was I?
And then sometimes I just can't even look at a
(33:43):
footage at all. His favorite place was the ocean, Like
one hundred percent. I never thought I'd be planning a
funeral for my soul made out twenty eight years old.
Speaker 3 (34:08):
In the midst of all this sorrow, one person would
have an idea, an idea that would start a chain
of events that would lead to something miraculous. Fittingly, it
was the same person who brought Eldi and Chumpy together
at her birthday party all those years ago, big wave
surfer and close friend Laura Enever.
Speaker 4 (34:45):
They'd been trying for a baby Eliti and Chumpy for
quite some time, and I knew how much Eliti and
Chumpy wanted a little kid. Just had this moment where
a friend's words came to me, and they came to
me quite heavy. And this friend had her husband pass
away when she was thirty and pregnant and had told
(35:06):
me that she wished that she could have been able
to retrieve his sperm and do IVF and give her
son a sibling. And those words just came to me.
This could save Elidie's future, like Elidie could still have
a future. Like it was, try and retrieve chumpy sperm
so they can try for a kid.
Speaker 7 (35:22):
We had to act now.
Speaker 16 (35:24):
Laura called me three or four o'clock in the afternoon
and she's like, there's a thing called post mortem sperm retrieval.
Speaker 5 (35:31):
My brother came up to me and he said, Hey,
the girls and Mama talking about getting Chumpy's sperm. What
do you think.
Speaker 23 (35:39):
She was straight away just yes, if this is thought,
it's going to be, like we're doing it.
Speaker 5 (35:44):
I didn't ask any questions. I just said, yes, go
for it, go right now, do whatever you have to do.
Speaker 4 (35:52):
We called like four IVF doctors who said it was
too late, and then one doctor said he could do it.
Speaker 5 (35:57):
And I spoke to this guy.
Speaker 6 (35:58):
I'm like, will you do this?
Speaker 16 (36:00):
And he said, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, no worries.
Speaker 27 (36:03):
It was pretty daunting when I got the phone call,
but I thought, well, being a senior doctor in an
IVF clinic, I'm the sort of person who.
Speaker 7 (36:10):
Should do this.
Speaker 5 (36:11):
He's like, I'll go to the hospital like I'll be waiting.
Speaker 16 (36:14):
Like I'll be waiting for you, but.
Speaker 6 (36:16):
I need I need.
Speaker 5 (36:17):
A court order. I was like, cool, where do I
get that? I think everyone just kind of went into
like this adrenaline autopilot kind of mode and just like,
got shit done.
Speaker 23 (36:31):
You're running out of time a minute every hour that
you'd take because you only have thirty six hours that
you could get that spur and retrieval. And I think
we did it at the thirty seventh.
Speaker 27 (36:41):
We had to move quickly once we got to go ahead.
By the time we got to do the procedure, we're
over thirty six hours, so we're really stretching the boundary
with that one. I knew there was a significant chance
that it wasn't going to work out, but we just
had to go ahead and hope for the best.
Speaker 12 (36:56):
Time was so short he went in after hours, I
think maybe not o'clock at night.
Speaker 27 (37:01):
Going into the morgue to do a procedure is something
I've never done before. But we just had to muscle
up and go ahead and do what we had to do.
There was an awful light riding on it for led.
Speaker 5 (37:13):
I think everything just really aligned that day and I
liked to think Chump was helping us.
Speaker 27 (37:28):
Take the sample bring it back to the lab. The
scientist has to determine if there's any live sperm, and
that's the crucial point, whether you have any live sperm.
At that stage, we had one percent of the sperm
were showing some sign of life.
Speaker 4 (37:44):
When we got the news that the sperm was still viable,
like it was just felt like the weirdest thing to celebrate,
but like it was just hope. It was just hope
for Elidie's future. Like she's just the most beautiful, beautiful
girl and Chump is the most beautiful man, and like
they deserve this baby, and they deserve to be parents.
Speaker 5 (38:03):
The first round of IVF didn't work, and I was
so incredibly lucky that the second round worked. But I
knew as soon as that embryo went in, I had
this feeling.
Speaker 12 (38:19):
The miracle baby. So someone said, which is great, it's a.
Speaker 17 (38:24):
Miracle, really is against the odds.
Speaker 5 (38:30):
It's funny. I was feeling girls straight away after such
a travesty, that this is now like my greatest gift
and my purpose, and I I think it's just meant
to be.
Speaker 1 (38:55):
Oh, this one's going to be a big one. Is that,
oh Chump. He's been gone more than a year now.
I became a father just after he died, so I
never got the chance to introduce him to my son. Chumping,
never got to experience becoming a father. But I'll tell
(39:16):
you one thing, he would have been incredible.
Speaker 6 (39:39):
This little baby was meant to be.
Speaker 5 (39:44):
Hopefully it comes out with his beautiful glowing skin and
his chiseled cheeks and jawline. Be pissed off if it
came out looking like me. I was writing these letters
(40:05):
in this journal one night, and I've only just found
them recently. I completely forgot. But I'm like talking to
my baby and I'm naming it, and I'm saying, like,
you are so lucky. You've got the best dad in
the whole world. He's the biggest legend ever. I will
show you everything he is and was, but he's not here,
(40:37):
and he won't be here. But you're so lucky that
he's your dad.
Speaker 21 (41:08):
I just got a text message right then.
Speaker 7 (41:11):
I mean the engine bay. You're doing some engine maintenance.
Speaker 3 (41:15):
But Ellenie has had the baby.
Speaker 9 (41:20):
Doing other sects.
Speaker 7 (41:23):
No, I don't know the sex.
Speaker 21 (41:25):
She just said, I've had the baby, so I'm to
get ready.
Speaker 7 (41:29):
Yes, so clean up, get to them.
Speaker 4 (41:34):
Yeah, h little Chumpy and Chumpy like just lives on
and they're gonna they're just connected forever now. And to
think that El can carry on his legacy with their
little with their little child is just yeah, it's it's special.
Speaker 3 (41:54):
This is this is from AZL Pops Andrew and I
and this is Murray and I another.
Speaker 1 (42:01):
Whole lot of baby plus Yeah.
Speaker 16 (42:03):
Yeah, you know, I always joke to El, I'm like,
this kid's gonna have two moms, like crazy moms, Like.
Speaker 28 (42:18):
Oh my god, soy a little Minnie.
Speaker 14 (42:25):
She's so cute, and it's such an amazing story. And
it's you know, his story is equally sad, but I
think it's so such a happy story for Elle and
the family.
Speaker 3 (42:39):
This Minnie, his daughter, congratulations all it's amazing, so good.
Speaker 16 (42:47):
The baby has just given her this whole new meaning
to life. Basically, it really, it really is. The circle
of life.
Speaker 5 (42:59):
Is just like slip it up and I grabbed her,
and Mom and I just looked at each other and
burst into tears. I just couldn't believe it. I and
I just I feel like as soon as I looked
into her eyes, Like she literally has Chumpy's.
Speaker 6 (43:15):
Eyes when he.
Speaker 5 (43:17):
When he was born, Like when you look at a
picture of him from day one, they have the exact
same eyes.
Speaker 9 (43:25):
Hello.
Speaker 5 (43:29):
Yeah, it was surreal. I couldn't believe. It was very emotional.
You'll finally hear Chumpy's daughter.
Speaker 20 (43:39):
Ali or Miry cool.
Speaker 5 (43:41):
Maybe so stoked on her. He would not let her go.
I'd swear if he was here, I'd barely get any
time with her. He'd just be like hogging her.
Speaker 20 (43:57):
He would love you so much.
Speaker 5 (43:58):
He does love you so much. I just thought I
couldn't imagine it until now she's in my arms and
everything just like makes sense and feels right. And yeah,
I think there was that fear that it like wasn't
going to eventuate, or something was going to happen or
you know, but you're here and you're perfect.
Speaker 20 (44:38):
H mm hmmm.
Speaker 1 (45:02):
H Jackie balance walked a daddy walked having dad like Chumpy.
He's an incredible snowboy, an incredible surfer, great diver, incredible musician,
Like what else do you want? Like he would have
been so much fun.
Speaker 8 (45:23):
Yeah, he would have been a terrific dad.
Speaker 3 (45:29):
H little hold, I ain't a little mini.
Speaker 7 (45:38):
A beautiful.
Speaker 12 (46:00):
Mh to be the sweet thing, isn't that We're gonna
we're gonna look at that baby and we're.
Speaker 10 (46:18):
Gonna go, well, this is bloody right, he's dead.
Speaker 12 (46:20):
But we're gonna look over there and say that empty chair,
that's gonna be like ship.
Speaker 10 (46:24):
That's that's not what I want to say.
Speaker 20 (46:28):
H hie him.
Speaker 9 (46:54):
Hm hm.
Speaker 17 (46:59):
H m.
Speaker 9 (47:03):
Hm hm.
Speaker 12 (47:16):
It'll be wonderful to have a keet on my knee
and you know, giving her a squeeze.
Speaker 18 (47:22):
Mm hmm