April 12, 2022 • 40 mins
Today we are speaking to the incredible, 'limb-it-less' Shaz Dagg. She is New Zealand's first elite para-triathlete and Parafed Manawatū's sport development adviser.
In 2016, Shaz's left arm was crushed by a gate while she was working on a goat farm. After multiple complications, and nine surgeries, the arm was amputated above her elbow.
Prior to her farm accident, Shaz represented New Zealand at the 2014 ITU world duathlon championships in Spain and raced in a number of Ironman events. She also competed as an age-grade triathlete and decided to come back to the sport after her accident.
By 2018 she had qualified to represent New Zealand at the triathlon world champs on the Gold Coast, becoming the country's first Para triathlete. In 2021 Shaz was the first ever female amputee to complete the Coast – to Coast.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
Welcome to the Black Hills and Tractor Wheels podcast, where
we are sharing stories from a range of women from
around New Zealand.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
For nearly a century, Rural Women New Zealand has been
dedicated to strengthening and supporting women and children to become
empowered members of their communities.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
We hope that by hearing these stories from inspiring women
all around the country, you'll feel inspired yourself.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
We're your hosts, Emma Higgins and Claire Williamson and would
love for you to join and subscribe to our podcast
so you don't miss our rural stories.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
By the way, this podcast is supported by f CO
keep We to the Bone since nineteen oh four and
working with their farming families to supply the world with
top quality beef and lamb since then.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Okay, so today we've got Shares joining us, and I
just wanted to welcome you to the Black Hills and
Tract Wheels podcast. Shares, thank you so much for coming
in and speaking with them today.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
You're absolutely welcome. It's a pleasure to be here.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
So we often start off this podcast because a give
our listeners a really nice kind of background. I suppose
as to where you've come from, and we might be
kind of where you were going when you were younger,
so the starters. Could you tell us a little bit
about your childhood and your experiences growing up? Did you
always live really Were you from a farming background, Did
(01:24):
you come from the city. Were you in a small
rural town? And yeah, I think a few of the
stories perhaps about growing up. I was born in Topo,
with the mighty lake there with us, grew up there
and went to school there right through to high school.
Didn't do my fifth film there, which is whatever year
that is in today's world, but yeah, you're eleven hold
(01:49):
the pin before that, because I knew i'd probably flunk
it anyway. Yeah, and I sort of moved. It was
a bit of a rap bag to my parents, to
be honest.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
So I ended up moving to Balls to my auntie
and uncle's farm where I lived with them for a
few years on their farm just behind a hark here.
So had the best upbringing there with them. Absolutely loved
it there. They really looked after me and supported me
and probably put me on the straight and narrow a bit. Yeah,
(02:22):
but I always remember the best thing I always remember
about growing up was going to my cousin's place to
their farm. Now, this person I don't call I don't
relate to her as my cousin. I relate to her
as my long, long and best sister I've had. And
that's Fiona Gower, who I'm all pretty sure you are
all very well familiar with. Yeah, she's somebody pretty special
(02:45):
in my life. We're not always joined at the hip,
we are quite away from one another, but we always
know one another or there when we need one another. Yeah,
her parents, Annie Joan and Uncle Eric, they were pretty
special to me. Yeah, still sort of brings a bit
a bit of emotion knowing that they've both passed now,
but they were very very special to me. And Fiona
and her brother Richard, Yeah, are a great part of
(03:08):
my life and always will be. And have so many
special memories of going to Fiona's parents' farm. We used
to do so many things on her horse, Red Big Red.
She taught me to ride on forg Red. We'd go
down to these little creeks and we'd do crayfish pitching
and you know all that sort of stuff. Yeah, it was.
It was just the best part of my holidays, to
(03:30):
be honest. Yeah, I love going there really look forward
to go in there.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Yeah, that's awesome, that's really cool. So you've actually had
a really neat farming kind of experiences. I had cousins
that used to come and stay with us us on
the farm too when I was growing up, and we
had the total same adventures. It must just be the thing,
you know, the thing to do when you live in
the country, your cousins come and hang out and you
have that special kind of relationship. I know that you
(03:56):
and Fiona are closed, but every you know, cousins are
like all was those brothers and sisters that you never
never had, so so that that's just fantastic. So as
you grew up, you you obviously had a bit of
time on farm, and I understand that there was a
point at which you came and you were working on
a goat farm about seven or eight years ago, and
(04:18):
there was something that's come that came up that that
actually did change your life. So would you mind telling
us a little bit about that and and what that
experience was like. And I know that you share this
story a lot, so I hope, you know, I hope
that that's a it's okay to ask, but yeah, it'd
be great to hear a little bit about where you
(04:39):
went there.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Yeah. Sure, So before the accident, I actually met this
wonderful man who now was my husband and has been
for some time, so he's pretty much my best friend.
And we actually had fifty acres at Mount Books in
the Manna. Wea tuo here before we moved to town
and started doing some other little diff for a ventures.
(05:01):
But one day a friend of mine was starting up
a goat farm out here in the Manure two and
she as if I'd be interested in coming along and
rooving for it, and I was like, heck, yes, something
totally different. You know, never never been on a goat
farm litt alone really been involved with goats or around
goats besides one that was always tied up, you know,
(05:21):
tear that up out the front of your gate basically
as your lawn mower.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
So away I trundled out there to my friend's place
and they were milking about nine hundred goats. They were
just starting in the process of doing this, so it
was something completely new to me. But yeah, absolutely loved
every minute of it. They were great people to work for,
great atmosphere. The goats were just unreal you know that
(05:49):
I didn't realize they were so clever, to be honest. Yeah,
so it was brilliant, you know. And I thought I
was going to be expecting to walk into this huge
barn with all these yapping goats and you know, making
all this horrendous noise, but you know what, they were
actually silent. It was just amazing. It was just yeah,
they were so happy and content. But yeah, one day
(06:10):
in particular, we were just about to start milking and
I was shutting one of the big gates, which was
actually a defense gate, and it was covered with corrugated
iron and this was purely there just to stop the
weather coming into the shed and getting onto the goat,
so it was basically keeping them warm and dry. So anyway,
I was closing the gate one day and unfortunately, just
(06:32):
a freak gust of wind picked me up and slammed
me in the gate between a post, where I was
left with a bit of a broken up. Well, let's
just I once I've broken arm, it was looking pretty
much like in a V shape. Yeah, I had completely
snapped and broken both my owner and rainial bones completely
(06:53):
in half. I went to ed where they told me
they put me into a cask and just sort of
realized me slightly. And the guy that was in there
end the doctor said to me, shares you know, you'll
have to go to theater tonight and we'll plate it,
plate them and pin them and it'll just be a
(07:13):
normal six to eight week recovery. And I was like, sweet,
no drama, all good. And he said, if you don't
go to theater tonight, there could be some serious complications.
And of course I was half grold. I didn't know
what was going on, and I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah,
that night, I didn't go to theater, or did I
go to theater the next morning, nor that night. And
(07:35):
this went on for five days. By the end of
the fifth day, and being knelt by mouth this whole time,
I ended up. I was suffering severe pain, and I
was sick of panadole by this stage, so I demanded
that I needed somebody to come in and see me,
because I could see my end of my fingers, you know,
out of the cast, going a little bit black, and
(07:56):
they were completely swollen. So anyway, the surgeon walked in
the door and he only just got into the door
and at the end of my bed, and he instantly
just put his hand up and he said, get hurt.
A surgery now. So I was promptly rushed out to surgery.
I didn't really know if my head was still in
the room and the butt was halfway down the hallway
(08:17):
or what. It was a pretty prompt reaction by everybody.
So yeah, I went to theater, came out of theater thinking,
you know, just pinned and plated. But unfortunately that found
that I had suffered compartment syndrome, and this is where
my arm had swollen so severely that it was starting
(08:39):
to cut circulation off. So what they'd done was they
done a fasciotomy, which is where they cut me up
right down the inside of my arm, across the back
of my hand and right up the other side. And
this was purely to try and release pressure. So after
that it was every second day I went back to
surgery and they would stitch up a set each time.
(09:01):
So in that I had nine surgeries in eleven days.
So the drugs were, you know, pretty pretty doing a
pretty good job. Yeah, there was some different emotions happening
in between there. But I must say though, in that
five days of nil by mouth, it was quite good.
I lost a few little kilos there, so there was
(09:23):
one good thing that I was trying to weigh up
the negatives to the positives, so I came out with
that one.
Speaker 4 (09:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
So from there, as I say, I had all these
surgeries to try and get my arm closed reclosed. In
the end we were left with a big gash like
this about here that they could not close the section.
So I was taken to hospital where they'd done a
skin graft and they removed a bit of off my butt,
not that you can actually till and unfortunately, but yeah,
(09:55):
so they removed that and put that into there, and
that heeled up really nice and in a great job.
I'll always remember my surgeon from down there. His name
was doctor Armstrong. How did you that right?
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Lovely so glad.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
Yeah, lovely, lovely chat. So anyway, we recovered well from
that and then it was I just thought it was
going to be on to recovery rest in recovery, so
it was a lot of sleep required. Yeah, And anyway
in the process, my arm would just be sitting. I
would always put my arm here just to you know,
once to keep it close to you. You know, you're
(10:31):
trying to protect it as we do and in the
end it would just be sitting here like this. So
over time, over about three months, I suppose we lost
all muscle mass, we lost movement. You know. I had
this same for it. I had a name for it
at that stage, because it was just hanging here like this.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Now.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
I don't know if I'm allowed to say this here,
but I'm going to say it because I tell everybody
what I called it. I used to call it my
cock and a sock, purely and simply because it was
flake and useless, all right. It was absolutely useless. So yeah,
so you can edit that if you like. That was
actually what I used to call it. So and it
just used to hang around, you know, absolutely useless, hung
(11:12):
around useless. So I decided one day I needed to
move forward with my life. I knew I didn't need
this hanging around anymore. I could see it was starting
to drag me down a fraction, and I knew that
I needed to do something about that. So I decided
to make this huge decision, which I brought up to
(11:33):
my husband one night when we were sitting down because
I wasn't quite sure how I was going to approach
this to him. So we were sitting there and we'd
just watched something funny on TV, and I thought, right,
this is the right moment. So I sort of said
to him, Hey, I want to have my arm amputated.
I just came out with it, you know, I thought,
no beating around the bus, just come out with it.
So I said to him, I'd like to get my
arm amputators. And his reaction was, oh, my goodness, I
(11:55):
can never ever forget it. It was just an instant,
defiant no. And I said, what do you mean no?
And I said, you know, just think He said, you're
not going to have one arm that was a flame
and ridiculous. No, h roh, right, and I said, oit
listen here, you I said, this is my body, not yours.
And I said, I quite feel that this is the
(12:16):
only way for me to move forward. I said, I'm
not a person to have something hanging around that is
I feel is not a part of me. So yeah,
I finally managed to talk them through by saying, well,
let's go and talk to a surgeon. Let's go and
talk to a specialist. So anyway off, we tropped to
the specialist one day, and it was actually the surgeon
(12:37):
that was related to all of this happening. So at
the Parson North Hospital. So I walked in the doors
and we sat down and he says to me, what
can I do for your shas And once again I
just said, I want wanted amputated, I want it removed.
His response to me, which I will never ever forget,
was I've been waiting for you to come and see
(12:58):
see me and ask me that. And you know what,
I thought, You prick, you absolutely prick. You've let me
go through this knowing full well that this was never
ever going to eventuate to her my arm being the
same as what it was before. So I was a
bit frustrated, and I was a bit wild, and I said, well,
you better make this happen, then, haven't you. And he
just looked straight at me and he said, is it
(13:19):
what you really want? And I said, yes it is.
So I always think that I must have had a
red flag on my file beside my name, because nobody
can just go into a hospital and into an appointment
say I want to cut off half a wind, you know,
and have it done. Yeah. So I was promptly referred
to a surgeon down and by in hospital. Lovely, lovely,
(13:43):
elderly gentleman who was just about to retire, and I'm thinking,
oh my goodness. But you know, I thought, what else
can go wrong? But you know what, he was the
most beautiful man I've ever met. And you know, we've
discussed it. I decided there and there that I wanted
to go ahead with it. He said, you're sure you
don't want to go Well, no, he said no. He
(14:04):
said I can see this is the best thing that
you are wanting to have done, and he said, I
fully support you. So we had an appointment made that
day for about six weeks later. Did I have any
second thoughts about it? No, none whatsoever. I was I
(14:24):
was just honestly, purely excited to get it, gone to
see it, gone to see it removed. Had I pictured
what I'd look like. Yeah, sure, I'd stood in front
of a mirror and put my arm behind the back,
and I thought, yeah, you're still not a bad old chuck.
You know.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
I have no regrets, none whatsoever. The only thing I
really remember before having the surgery was, you know, You've
got that beautiful gown on and that silly looking hat on,
and I'm lying there and my surgeon comes over and
it's softly beautiful or quiet spoken voices. Have you got
(15:02):
any questions, Shares my last questions? I said, no, not
at all. But I said one little thing. I said,
I'd like to know how much it weighs? And he
all of a sudden he lets out this what I said,
I'd like to know how much it is when you
remove it? And he said, and all my life, I
(15:22):
have never ever been asked that question before. He said,
can I ask what for? And I said, yeah, actually
there's quite a few group of us that we've got
a wager on how much it's going to weigh. Well
that was it the whole fa It was in fits
and everybody was relaxed and we had a good laugh.
And then the next thing it says to me was Okay,
(15:43):
I've got a question to ask you, Shares, and he says,
I can I know I can ask you right now.
He said, I'm not sure if you've been asked it before,
But he said, what would you like me to do
with it once we remove it? I said, for it?
For all I care. I said, you can feed it
to the flame and dogs, because I said I don't
want it, and it just once again he was in hysterics,
and he says, well, no, you know, it's something we
(16:05):
need to think about, you know, And honestly I hadn't
thought about it. It was something that I never ever
crossed my mind. So there were a couple of options.
So I gave mine. I said it, give it back
to the medical stuff and hopefully that they can learn
something from this not happening to somebody else. So that's
what i'd done. So I honestly don't know where it went.
(16:28):
I don't know if a dog didn't have a good
meal one morning, or if it did go back to
the medical science and it was put in the freezer
for somebody to hack around at. I don't know, and
I honestly don't care. So I had this this operation.
I woke up that afternoon, and honestly, I just still
brings tears to my eyes. It was I looked the
(16:49):
first thing I naturally did. I didn't look at my husband.
I looked straight down and I just looked straight at
my arm and I said, welcome to our world, Stumbley.
That's it's Honestly, I've never looked back, and I never will.
It's been the best decision of my life. And in
that time been three years ago since I had it
done now, so I'm still a relatively new ampuity love love, love,
(17:13):
my love, my journey with Stumpy. I've had amazing opportunities,
amazing journeys, but it's been the best three years of
my life. You know, six now fifty three of them
cannot compare where I am. Now.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
You and Stumby are conquering the world. I love thiss
well man. That is just yeah. I think I have
a bit of a thing. Most people on this podcast
make me emotional, and I'm unsurprised that your story has.
But I actually would really like to talk a little
bit about your sport, I suppose, because I understand that
(17:52):
there are two parts to this. The first one is
that you are now Parafert Bnoma two's sport an advisor,
and so that's that's one question. And then the second
part is that you are, I believe, a triathlete and
you have been for a while. So tell us a
little bit about shares the triathlete and what you and
(18:15):
Stumpy have done over the last couple of years. In
that space.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
Okay, So in that space, so exactly a month of
the day after I had Stumpy room and met Stumpy,
had the arm removed and met Stumpy exactly one month
of the day. I knew about three weeks after I
met Stumpy that I needed a challenge. I needed something
to be focused for and I needed to make my
(18:41):
life worthwhile. Again not saying that it wasn't worthwhile before,
but I needed a big spark. So I needed a
massive challenge. So I used to love dabbling in a
bit of running, and dabbling in a bit of cycling,
nothing major at all, just you know, the dabble dabble,
like we get out there and do it. So I
(19:02):
needed something to make it challenging. So I threw in
swimming because I knew I hated it with a passion,
probably because I had to keep my mouth shut for one,
but secondly it was just something I just loathed. So
I threw in the swimming as my challenge. So I
had to know exactly whether I was going to sink
(19:23):
swim and circles or go and swim. So exactly month
of the day, I said to my husband, We're going
to the pool, and he was once again raised the
old eyebrows and rolled the old eyes, and he says, oh,
here we go again. He says, what's made you decide
to do this? I said, I just need to. So
Stumpy had healed and was fine and was all okay
(19:45):
to go in the pool. Obviously that was all checked
out first. So yeah, I jumped into this pool this
particular day, and I said to my husband, right, get
your phone out and take a video, because I said
this could be quite entertaining. So I honestly had no
idea y what was going to happen. So we jumped
into the pool, stuck mcgoggles on. First of all, how
do I put mcgoggles on? So that was a challenge
(20:08):
right there. So yeah, managed to get them on with
the one arm, probably got my nose a bit twisted
in the process a few times, but yeah, got them on,
and I just went under the water, kicked off from
the back of the pool and came up, threw the
right arm over and I thought, yeah, this is all right,
threw Stumpy over and I was like, ooks, we're not
(20:30):
going anywhere. There was just nothing there. So there was
only the right arm. But we made it. We carried on.
I really knew I didn't really know what it was
going to look like. When I got to the end.
But I got to the end and I just stopped
and my goggles just filled up with water. And that
wasn't water from the pool. That was because I was
(20:51):
so emotional that I had done it. So I knew
from there, right, Stumpy, we're on a journey. We're gone
for it. So I thought, right, I looked up Paralympics
and there was a Triflon. Triflon was in the Paralympics.
So I decided, right, I was going to have a crack.
So we went down the process of doing the New
Zealand Nationals Para Champs. Not too bad came out of that, Yeah,
(21:14):
and I won that and then it was the next
process was to do the Oceania, which was a trip
over to OZ and it was like this is all
out of my comfort zone, but hey, we're doing it.
And yeah. We went over there and I raced against
another some other athletes that were in the same category
as me. I came out with a silver, so I
(21:36):
was like, stumping, we're not doing too bad, head, So
we carried on and yeah, and it ended up becoming
New Zealand's first elite paratriathlete, traveling around the world quite
a bit at races trying to gain a spot for
the Paralympics. We were doing okay. Then it sort of
(21:57):
got to the financial side of it, because there's no
fun until you get into the team. It was getting
rather costly, so I had to sort of stop and
make a decision whether I was going to continue on.
And then COVID hit, So it was basically like a sign.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
To me.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
I thought, well, you know, things happen for a reason,
maybe this is my reason. And just before that it hit,
I got my most treasured medal, which was at the
Tokyo qualifying race where I ended up getting a bronze.
So to me, that was to me, that was my achievement.
I'd achieved what, you know, I'd set out and then,
(22:34):
as I say, COVID hit. So it was like, okay,
that's a sign. So yeah, we didn't follow on down
that pathway. So then there was this other thing. I thought, well,
what are we doing? Ow stun'ty. We can't leave it there,
you know, what else can we do? What else can
we try and do? All of a sudden, this I
(22:55):
saw something gone email or social media and it was
Coast to Coast New Zealand and I thought, oh my goodness,
never ever done multi sport, never done anything like that.
What does it involve? So his old noodle Nana shares looking,
you know, on the laptop, trying to see what Coast
to Coast was all about, and I saw that it
involved kayaking, and I'm like, oh, no way, how am
(23:20):
I going to kayak? This means I would rarely definitely
go in circles, you know, if I got into a boat,
never ever sitting in a boat before, and not knowing
what for the first thing, they're not boats, the kayaks, right,
He's me calling them boats. So yeah, having no no
idea whatsoever what was entailed in this. So I actually
(23:42):
just googled Palms the North Canoe Club and there was
a gentleman's name come up. So I just made contact
with him and said to him, can we catch up?
You know, I'd like to have a chat blah blah blah.
And I told him what I was looking at. Well,
I told him that, you know, I know of somebody
that is a looking at doing Coast to coast, you know,
would you be keen to sort of help? And he goes, oh, yeah, absolutely,
(24:06):
no problems at all. And I said well, you might
want to rethink it in a minute when I tell
you who it is. And he says, oh, do you
think i'll know them? And I said, well you will
do now and he says, oh, yeah, who is it?
And I said he's sitting straight opposite her. And he
just looked at me and he said, you've only got
one ma. I said yeah, and that was it and
(24:28):
we clicked and he couldn't have been more obliging. He
was just an honestly, since then, he was just such
a friend and he is still such a friend. So
here him and I are trying to work out how
we're going to do this quietly. So the next stage
was to contact Coast to coast of course, and check
(24:50):
to see if they would be willing to let Stumpy
and I enter. And so they contacted and talked to
their safety team, their safety river team, and they came
up that they would be happy for me to do
it as long as I was in a kite with
somebody else, so that they knew if we tipped, if
I tipped out, I had somebody there to support me,
(25:10):
assist me, made me whatever was needed, because obviously there's
no ambulances alongside of the river.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Is that?
Speaker 3 (25:18):
So that's where I said to Brett, I need somebody,
you know who? Can you think of anybody? He said,
You're looking at him. And our friendship has just flourished
so much. He's become such a close friend. His wife
has become such a close friend. Yeah, it's a pretty
special friendship. Here we were and we didn't know how
we were going to make this work. How was Stompy
(25:38):
going to be attached to a paddle? So Brett, being
a plumber, came up with this most amazing, good old
Kiwi ingenuity. Just a hose clamp stuck on the end
of a socket which the Limb Center had made for me,
and it was just held on by a one dollar
rubber o ring. And that's how we survived down the Yeah,
(26:01):
the seventy k kayak course off coast to coast last year,
and we managed to do the whole thing. We survived.
Was it pretty Brett was unaware a lot of the
time because I was behind him, I was seated behind
him that a lot of the time. I was actually
in severe pain and there was a lot of tears.
(26:24):
But would I let Brett know that at the time,
No way, because just putting Stumpy inside a socket is
very painful because I also suffer with this not so
much phantom pain. Yes, I do have severe fantom pain.
So at all times I feel like my arm is
(26:44):
still in that same position that I used to call
in that other terms, and that's where your brain remembers
that it was in the last position before it was amputated.
And I can just still feel my hand and it's
just severe pins and needles throbbing. So with this other
(27:05):
form of what should we call it pain, it's very intense.
It's called CRIPS Complex Regional Pain syndrome, and it's just
severe electric shocks firing NonStop. So of course just having
anything around and on Stumpy is very painful, but having
(27:26):
to put a socket on that you literally have to
wind yourself into and on is extremely painful. But you
know what, you know, each time we've done another paddle,
I just knew it was one less paddle I had
to do, and I was on a mission. The Limb
Center had been such awesome, you know, I've just got
such a great relationship with those guys down there, absolutely
(27:48):
incredible people. They came up with its name when they
found out what I was looking at doing and they say, Shaz,
we have to find a name for you. So they've
done this sort of competition there at the Limb Center Wellington,
and all staff members put in their thoughts and their
ideas and they came up with this most incredible name.
And it's with me all the time. Now that's who
(28:10):
people call me. Limb It Liss shares Dag. So not limitless,
but it's Limbless. And I just said, that is incredible,
that is us. So that's how Limitless shars Dag was created.
And so every time I do something, I think of
that name, and I think of all the people out
(28:31):
there that have got challenges. Pat you know, we can
do anything. We can achieve anything if we want to,
so you know, turn that negative into a positive. It's
one of my sayings and the other one that I
always say to myself when I am struggling, which was
many a time in that Kayak, was don't give in.
(28:55):
It comes from within. It's what's in here. You know,
if you want it and it's in your heart, you
will achieve it. There's been many times when I didn't
know whether I would be able to do what I
wanted to do, but I wanted to do it for
everybody that was out there like me. I don't like
the word disabled. I use the word challenged because I'm
(29:16):
not disabled. I can still do everything I want to
do because I adapt the situation to make it work.
You know, I've got this absolutely incredible myo mechanical arm
that the Limb Centers has got for me. It's a risk,
don't get me wrong. There'll be some awesome party tricks
coming out of all this. And just imagine this glass
(29:39):
of wine in my hand and doing a three sixty rotation,
you know, with this wrist. Pretty cool, huh. You know,
So I've got this. I've got these hands, I've got
these fingers, I've got a wrist, and then I've also
got an elbow. But unfortunately I can't wear it at
the moment because of the pain levels. But I've got
that there, and I vowed them to clar that after
(30:00):
Coast to Coast, I was that was my next challenge,
to be able to wear that, to be able to
go around and do party tricks, to be able to
give people the bird, you know, with this, with this
this mechanical finger. You know, it's all hard of being
who I am, but having fun along my journey, I don't.
(30:21):
I must say, I don't go around doing that to
people honestly, But you know, to be able to do
things like that in a fun surrounding and for people
to laugh at my journey and to be able to
laugh at me but with me is pretty important to me.
I can't laugh at myself there's something wrong because honestly,
(30:43):
I do some real weird stuff at times, and some
of the things I do, I think you dork, you know.
I just love the whole journey. So yes, I did
finish Coast to Coast. I did succeed my mission. Have
I inspired others? Have I shown others that we can
still achieve things, We can do things. It's just a
(31:06):
matter of looking at it, doing things in a different way,
but we can still do them. So is at the
end of my next journey. It's just the beginning again.
You would not credit it, Claire, But just before we
connected in this podcast, an email came through from Coast
(31:29):
to Coast saying that entries were open and they were
aware that after I finished it last year that I
wanted to have a go at doing the whole thing solo.
So when I say the whole whole thing solo, I
am have just signed up just prior to this as
a two day entrant to do it completely solo, and
(31:50):
that includes the seventy case kayak in my own boat solo. Wow.
So it is going to be a massive, massive task
for Stumpy and nine. But can I do it? Who knows?
We don't know, but we won't know until we try, right,
So once again, you just push that barrier out a
bit further and hopefully inspire others and show others you
(32:13):
know that we're here, we can achieve, don't doubt us. Yeah,
So I just hope I can inspire some others to
be able to do what I'm doing. Yeah. Well, you know,
it doesn't have to be closed. Just find a little challenge.
Just enjoy the journey along that challenge. Whether you achieve
(32:34):
it or not, it doesn't matter. But you've had a journey,
you've tried, you've found ways to do things in a
different perspective, but you've given something to go. I think
that's that's the only way you can ever be truly
happy with yourself is if you've tried something and you've
given it a go. If you succeed, massive, massive respect
(32:55):
to whoever succeeds there their goals. But for us set
our challenge, I think we deserve that extra respect and
that extra pad on the back because we have put
our heart and our soul, our commitment, and our adapting
into something to show who we are. Never never ever
(33:17):
doubt us.
Speaker 4 (33:18):
Yeah, so you know I am saying out of what
I've achieved now, I might only have one one, but
us can still fly.
Speaker 3 (33:29):
Who can think of things like that? It helps them
along their journey.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
We're just going to take a short break so you
can hear a word from our sponsor.
Speaker 5 (33:39):
HAFCO has been part of the fabric of rural New
Zealand since nineteen oh four, partnering with livestock farmers across
New Zealand, supplying quality beef and lamb to markets across
the world. This naturally means f CO works closely with
individual farming families and wider rural communities, providing the support
where it's needed, nurturing the roots of New Zealand's farming
(34:01):
success story. That's a f coat, give me to the bone.
Since nineteen oh four, A.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
Million things swirling around on my head. Actually after that
wonderful description, and you capture it so well. You have
inspired people. We know that, and that's that's incredible. And
we've talked a lot about some of those challenges that
you've overcome, and without wanting to sort of dwell on
it too much, I imagine that there are times when
(34:29):
you're just like, you know what, stuff this? You know,
this is just a bit shit. How does shares deal
with days like that and moments like that? And what
are those practical things that you I suppose use in
your mind potentially in your body. Have you got anything
(34:49):
that you use? And because I know that if it
works for you, it's got to work for everyone.
Speaker 3 (34:55):
You know what I use? The best thing is to
be able to smile. Honestly, it's it's the most simple thing.
It's the easiest thing. But if you can smile, and
if you can walk to a mirror and look at
yourself smiling and you can see that that reflection is happy,
everyone else can see the same thing. But if you're
feeling down and droopy, drawed, you know you're only going
(35:19):
to draw everyone else down. Be happy, whether you want
to be or not. Put a smile on your dial,
get outside, get some fresh air and just surround yourself
with friends. Don't close anyone off, never ever close people off.
I mean, I haven't got a great relationship with my family,
(35:39):
my parents, but I have met another family, and that's
Fiona and Anie Joan and Uncle Eric. Okay, they're not
with us now, but they're always in my heart and
I always think of them always. And the happy times
that I've had. You know, I've had so many happy times.
I've had more many happy times and I've had bad times.
(36:00):
And why is that because I've chosen to be like,
have those happy times as smile as all you need,
smile and fresh air, you can't go wrong.
Speaker 2 (36:12):
That's just such good advice. I love that, so simple,
such good advice. It's beautiful. So I've got one last
question for you today's shares. So we have we've heard
all about some really incredible achievements, some things that have
challenged you, some things that have taken you to some
(36:33):
some tough places, some things that have taken to some
absolutely wonderful, jubilant places. I would say, what are you
hoping to achieve over the next twelve months. I know
that we've just committed to the coast to Coast and
is there anything else that's coming up for shares? Limitless
Shares Dad a.
Speaker 3 (36:53):
Couple of years back, I've forgot. I actually also signed
up to a half Mine Man, and I just realized
last week. I got this email saying that my entry
has been transferred to because of all of the COVID
and everything, it's now it's happening this year. So yeah,
apparently I'm doing a half iron Man then thet the
(37:14):
beginning of December as well, so it's going to be
a massive year. So yes, Stumpy and I have to
get in that water again unfortunately, something I really really loathe,
but it's something that's going to push me again. And
also training for Coast to Coast. So between Bretton and
(37:34):
my husband Owen, you know, and Jess and my friends
around me. I've got one very good friend Helen who Woarboys,
who is actually the mayor here in the Manuatu and Fielding.
She's been such a great support. She's actually my support
person as well as on with Bretton Jess at Coast,
you know, just surrounding myself with them, and of course
(37:58):
I've got a great training buddy. I just been happy
going along on the journey. Yeah, living the dream, absolutely dream,
I really am.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
Yeah, that's beautiful. I think that if there's such a
stunning note to end on, you know, if I summarize
this conversation today, it would have to be absolute positivity.
You know, something that's been Yeah, something that's been a
really difficult part of your life has become the best.
And I just I love that. I really applaud you.
(38:31):
I want to say, actually, one, how much we really
appreciate having you on the podcast. It's wonderful to hear
your story. It's wonderful to actually busk in your positivity,
if I'm honest, and also just to be able to
share some of that positivity and inspiration with other people
(38:51):
with our listeners in gosh, you know, I myself have
been wanting to do the Coast coast for about five years,
and now I'm thinking, God clear, get off your bum
and get this done. Go do it with shares? How good? Right? Account?
Speaker 3 (39:08):
Okay, I'll see your entry in three right, Claire.
Speaker 2 (39:13):
Okay, okay, you heard her here first first, but no, genuinely,
thank you so much. And yeah, if there is one
thing I think we can we can all understand it,
it is just to have a really good attitude to
life and that just absolutely makes it right, So thank
you very much. Rural Women New Zealand is a community
(39:36):
of like minded women who are doing amazing things in
their respective regions in communities.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
This podcast celebrates the achievements, successes and stories of our
Rural Women, which are also the foundations for our organization's
rich history.
Speaker 2 (39:51):
We want you to be part of our future story,
so please join us by clicking on the link and
the show notes, and we look forward to welcoming you
into the fold in
Welcome to the Black Hills and Tractor Wheels podcast, where
we are sharing stories from a range of women from
around New Zealand.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
For nearly a century, Rural Women New Zealand has been
dedicated to strengthening and supporting women and children to become
empowered members of their communities.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
We hope that by hearing these stories from inspiring women
all around the country, you'll feel inspired yourself.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
We're your hosts, Emma Higgins and Claire Williamson and would
love for you to join and subscribe to our podcast
so you don't miss our rural stories.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
By the way, this podcast is supported by f CO
keep We to the Bone since nineteen oh four and
working with their farming families to supply the world with
top quality beef and lamb since then.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Okay, so today we've got Shares joining us, and I
just wanted to welcome you to the Black Hills and
Tract Wheels podcast. Shares, thank you so much for coming
in and speaking with them today.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
You're absolutely welcome. It's a pleasure to be here.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
So we often start off this podcast because a give
our listeners a really nice kind of background. I suppose
as to where you've come from, and we might be
kind of where you were going when you were younger,
so the starters. Could you tell us a little bit
about your childhood and your experiences growing up? Did you
always live really Were you from a farming background, Did
(01:24):
you come from the city. Were you in a small
rural town? And yeah, I think a few of the
stories perhaps about growing up. I was born in Topo,
with the mighty lake there with us, grew up there
and went to school there right through to high school.
Didn't do my fifth film there, which is whatever year
that is in today's world, but yeah, you're eleven hold
(01:49):
the pin before that, because I knew i'd probably flunk
it anyway. Yeah, and I sort of moved. It was
a bit of a rap bag to my parents, to
be honest.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
So I ended up moving to Balls to my auntie
and uncle's farm where I lived with them for a
few years on their farm just behind a hark here.
So had the best upbringing there with them. Absolutely loved
it there. They really looked after me and supported me
and probably put me on the straight and narrow a bit. Yeah,
(02:22):
but I always remember the best thing I always remember
about growing up was going to my cousin's place to
their farm. Now, this person I don't call I don't
relate to her as my cousin. I relate to her
as my long, long and best sister I've had. And
that's Fiona Gower, who I'm all pretty sure you are
all very well familiar with. Yeah, she's somebody pretty special
(02:45):
in my life. We're not always joined at the hip,
we are quite away from one another, but we always
know one another or there when we need one another. Yeah,
her parents, Annie Joan and Uncle Eric, they were pretty
special to me. Yeah, still sort of brings a bit
a bit of emotion knowing that they've both passed now,
but they were very very special to me. And Fiona
and her brother Richard, Yeah, are a great part of
(03:08):
my life and always will be. And have so many
special memories of going to Fiona's parents' farm. We used
to do so many things on her horse, Red Big Red.
She taught me to ride on forg Red. We'd go
down to these little creeks and we'd do crayfish pitching
and you know all that sort of stuff. Yeah, it was.
It was just the best part of my holidays, to
(03:30):
be honest. Yeah, I love going there really look forward
to go in there.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Yeah, that's awesome, that's really cool. So you've actually had
a really neat farming kind of experiences. I had cousins
that used to come and stay with us us on
the farm too when I was growing up, and we
had the total same adventures. It must just be the thing,
you know, the thing to do when you live in
the country, your cousins come and hang out and you
have that special kind of relationship. I know that you
(03:56):
and Fiona are closed, but every you know, cousins are
like all was those brothers and sisters that you never
never had, so so that that's just fantastic. So as
you grew up, you you obviously had a bit of
time on farm, and I understand that there was a
point at which you came and you were working on
a goat farm about seven or eight years ago, and
(04:18):
there was something that's come that came up that that
actually did change your life. So would you mind telling
us a little bit about that and and what that
experience was like. And I know that you share this
story a lot, so I hope, you know, I hope
that that's a it's okay to ask, but yeah, it'd
be great to hear a little bit about where you
(04:39):
went there.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Yeah. Sure, So before the accident, I actually met this
wonderful man who now was my husband and has been
for some time, so he's pretty much my best friend.
And we actually had fifty acres at Mount Books in
the Manna. Wea tuo here before we moved to town
and started doing some other little diff for a ventures.
(05:01):
But one day a friend of mine was starting up
a goat farm out here in the Manure two and
she as if I'd be interested in coming along and
rooving for it, and I was like, heck, yes, something
totally different. You know, never never been on a goat
farm litt alone really been involved with goats or around
goats besides one that was always tied up, you know,
(05:21):
tear that up out the front of your gate basically
as your lawn mower.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
So away I trundled out there to my friend's place
and they were milking about nine hundred goats. They were
just starting in the process of doing this, so it
was something completely new to me. But yeah, absolutely loved
every minute of it. They were great people to work for,
great atmosphere. The goats were just unreal you know that
(05:49):
I didn't realize they were so clever, to be honest. Yeah,
so it was brilliant, you know. And I thought I
was going to be expecting to walk into this huge
barn with all these yapping goats and you know, making
all this horrendous noise, but you know what, they were
actually silent. It was just amazing. It was just yeah,
they were so happy and content. But yeah, one day
(06:10):
in particular, we were just about to start milking and
I was shutting one of the big gates, which was
actually a defense gate, and it was covered with corrugated
iron and this was purely there just to stop the
weather coming into the shed and getting onto the goat,
so it was basically keeping them warm and dry. So anyway,
I was closing the gate one day and unfortunately, just
(06:32):
a freak gust of wind picked me up and slammed
me in the gate between a post, where I was
left with a bit of a broken up. Well, let's
just I once I've broken arm, it was looking pretty
much like in a V shape. Yeah, I had completely
snapped and broken both my owner and rainial bones completely
(06:53):
in half. I went to ed where they told me
they put me into a cask and just sort of
realized me slightly. And the guy that was in there
end the doctor said to me, shares you know, you'll
have to go to theater tonight and we'll plate it,
plate them and pin them and it'll just be a
(07:13):
normal six to eight week recovery. And I was like, sweet,
no drama, all good. And he said, if you don't
go to theater tonight, there could be some serious complications.
And of course I was half grold. I didn't know
what was going on, and I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah,
that night, I didn't go to theater, or did I
go to theater the next morning, nor that night. And
(07:35):
this went on for five days. By the end of
the fifth day, and being knelt by mouth this whole time,
I ended up. I was suffering severe pain, and I
was sick of panadole by this stage, so I demanded
that I needed somebody to come in and see me,
because I could see my end of my fingers, you know,
out of the cast, going a little bit black, and
(07:56):
they were completely swollen. So anyway, the surgeon walked in
the door and he only just got into the door
and at the end of my bed, and he instantly
just put his hand up and he said, get hurt.
A surgery now. So I was promptly rushed out to surgery.
I didn't really know if my head was still in
the room and the butt was halfway down the hallway
(08:17):
or what. It was a pretty prompt reaction by everybody.
So yeah, I went to theater, came out of theater thinking,
you know, just pinned and plated. But unfortunately that found
that I had suffered compartment syndrome, and this is where
my arm had swollen so severely that it was starting
(08:39):
to cut circulation off. So what they'd done was they
done a fasciotomy, which is where they cut me up
right down the inside of my arm, across the back
of my hand and right up the other side. And
this was purely to try and release pressure. So after
that it was every second day I went back to
surgery and they would stitch up a set each time.
(09:01):
So in that I had nine surgeries in eleven days.
So the drugs were, you know, pretty pretty doing a
pretty good job. Yeah, there was some different emotions happening
in between there. But I must say though, in that
five days of nil by mouth, it was quite good.
I lost a few little kilos there, so there was
(09:23):
one good thing that I was trying to weigh up
the negatives to the positives, so I came out with
that one.
Speaker 4 (09:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
So from there, as I say, I had all these
surgeries to try and get my arm closed reclosed. In
the end we were left with a big gash like
this about here that they could not close the section.
So I was taken to hospital where they'd done a
skin graft and they removed a bit of off my butt,
not that you can actually till and unfortunately, but yeah,
(09:55):
so they removed that and put that into there, and
that heeled up really nice and in a great job.
I'll always remember my surgeon from down there. His name
was doctor Armstrong. How did you that right?
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Lovely so glad.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
Yeah, lovely, lovely chat. So anyway, we recovered well from
that and then it was I just thought it was
going to be on to recovery rest in recovery, so
it was a lot of sleep required. Yeah, And anyway
in the process, my arm would just be sitting. I
would always put my arm here just to you know,
once to keep it close to you. You know, you're
(10:31):
trying to protect it as we do and in the
end it would just be sitting here like this. So
over time, over about three months, I suppose we lost
all muscle mass, we lost movement. You know. I had
this same for it. I had a name for it
at that stage, because it was just hanging here like this.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Now.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
I don't know if I'm allowed to say this here,
but I'm going to say it because I tell everybody
what I called it. I used to call it my
cock and a sock, purely and simply because it was
flake and useless, all right. It was absolutely useless. So yeah,
so you can edit that if you like. That was
actually what I used to call it. So and it
just used to hang around, you know, absolutely useless, hung
(11:12):
around useless. So I decided one day I needed to
move forward with my life. I knew I didn't need
this hanging around anymore. I could see it was starting
to drag me down a fraction, and I knew that
I needed to do something about that. So I decided
to make this huge decision, which I brought up to
(11:33):
my husband one night when we were sitting down because
I wasn't quite sure how I was going to approach
this to him. So we were sitting there and we'd
just watched something funny on TV, and I thought, right,
this is the right moment. So I sort of said
to him, Hey, I want to have my arm amputated.
I just came out with it, you know, I thought,
no beating around the bus, just come out with it.
So I said to him, I'd like to get my
arm amputators. And his reaction was, oh, my goodness, I
(11:55):
can never ever forget it. It was just an instant,
defiant no. And I said, what do you mean no?
And I said, you know, just think He said, you're
not going to have one arm that was a flame
and ridiculous. No, h roh, right, and I said, oit
listen here, you I said, this is my body, not yours.
And I said, I quite feel that this is the
(12:16):
only way for me to move forward. I said, I'm
not a person to have something hanging around that is
I feel is not a part of me. So yeah,
I finally managed to talk them through by saying, well,
let's go and talk to a surgeon. Let's go and
talk to a specialist. So anyway off, we tropped to
the specialist one day, and it was actually the surgeon
(12:37):
that was related to all of this happening. So at
the Parson North Hospital. So I walked in the doors
and we sat down and he says to me, what
can I do for your shas And once again I
just said, I want wanted amputated, I want it removed.
His response to me, which I will never ever forget,
was I've been waiting for you to come and see
(12:58):
see me and ask me that. And you know what,
I thought, You prick, you absolutely prick. You've let me
go through this knowing full well that this was never
ever going to eventuate to her my arm being the
same as what it was before. So I was a
bit frustrated, and I was a bit wild, and I said, well,
you better make this happen, then, haven't you. And he
just looked straight at me and he said, is it
(13:19):
what you really want? And I said, yes it is.
So I always think that I must have had a
red flag on my file beside my name, because nobody
can just go into a hospital and into an appointment
say I want to cut off half a wind, you know,
and have it done. Yeah. So I was promptly referred
to a surgeon down and by in hospital. Lovely, lovely,
(13:43):
elderly gentleman who was just about to retire, and I'm thinking,
oh my goodness. But you know, I thought, what else
can go wrong? But you know what, he was the
most beautiful man I've ever met. And you know, we've
discussed it. I decided there and there that I wanted
to go ahead with it. He said, you're sure you
don't want to go Well, no, he said no. He
(14:04):
said I can see this is the best thing that
you are wanting to have done, and he said, I
fully support you. So we had an appointment made that
day for about six weeks later. Did I have any
second thoughts about it? No, none whatsoever. I was I
(14:24):
was just honestly, purely excited to get it, gone to
see it, gone to see it removed. Had I pictured
what I'd look like. Yeah, sure, I'd stood in front
of a mirror and put my arm behind the back,
and I thought, yeah, you're still not a bad old chuck.
You know.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
I have no regrets, none whatsoever. The only thing I
really remember before having the surgery was, you know, You've
got that beautiful gown on and that silly looking hat on,
and I'm lying there and my surgeon comes over and
it's softly beautiful or quiet spoken voices. Have you got
(15:02):
any questions, Shares my last questions? I said, no, not
at all. But I said one little thing. I said,
I'd like to know how much it weighs? And he
all of a sudden he lets out this what I said,
I'd like to know how much it is when you
remove it? And he said, and all my life, I
(15:22):
have never ever been asked that question before. He said,
can I ask what for? And I said, yeah, actually
there's quite a few group of us that we've got
a wager on how much it's going to weigh. Well
that was it the whole fa It was in fits
and everybody was relaxed and we had a good laugh.
And then the next thing it says to me was Okay,
(15:43):
I've got a question to ask you, Shares, and he says,
I can I know I can ask you right now.
He said, I'm not sure if you've been asked it before,
But he said, what would you like me to do
with it once we remove it? I said, for it?
For all I care. I said, you can feed it
to the flame and dogs, because I said I don't
want it, and it just once again he was in hysterics,
and he says, well, no, you know, it's something we
(16:05):
need to think about, you know, And honestly I hadn't
thought about it. It was something that I never ever
crossed my mind. So there were a couple of options.
So I gave mine. I said it, give it back
to the medical stuff and hopefully that they can learn
something from this not happening to somebody else. So that's
what i'd done. So I honestly don't know where it went.
(16:28):
I don't know if a dog didn't have a good
meal one morning, or if it did go back to
the medical science and it was put in the freezer
for somebody to hack around at. I don't know, and
I honestly don't care. So I had this this operation.
I woke up that afternoon, and honestly, I just still
brings tears to my eyes. It was I looked the
(16:49):
first thing I naturally did. I didn't look at my husband.
I looked straight down and I just looked straight at
my arm and I said, welcome to our world, Stumbley.
That's it's Honestly, I've never looked back, and I never will.
It's been the best decision of my life. And in
that time been three years ago since I had it
done now, so I'm still a relatively new ampuity love love, love,
(17:13):
my love, my journey with Stumpy. I've had amazing opportunities,
amazing journeys, but it's been the best three years of
my life. You know, six now fifty three of them
cannot compare where I am. Now.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
You and Stumby are conquering the world. I love thiss
well man. That is just yeah. I think I have
a bit of a thing. Most people on this podcast
make me emotional, and I'm unsurprised that your story has.
But I actually would really like to talk a little
bit about your sport, I suppose, because I understand that
(17:52):
there are two parts to this. The first one is
that you are now Parafert Bnoma two's sport an advisor,
and so that's that's one question. And then the second
part is that you are, I believe, a triathlete and
you have been for a while. So tell us a
little bit about shares the triathlete and what you and
(18:15):
Stumpy have done over the last couple of years. In
that space.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
Okay, So in that space, so exactly a month of
the day after I had Stumpy room and met Stumpy,
had the arm removed and met Stumpy exactly one month
of the day. I knew about three weeks after I
met Stumpy that I needed a challenge. I needed something
to be focused for and I needed to make my
(18:41):
life worthwhile. Again not saying that it wasn't worthwhile before,
but I needed a big spark. So I needed a
massive challenge. So I used to love dabbling in a
bit of running, and dabbling in a bit of cycling,
nothing major at all, just you know, the dabble dabble,
like we get out there and do it. So I
(19:02):
needed something to make it challenging. So I threw in
swimming because I knew I hated it with a passion,
probably because I had to keep my mouth shut for one,
but secondly it was just something I just loathed. So
I threw in the swimming as my challenge. So I
had to know exactly whether I was going to sink
(19:23):
swim and circles or go and swim. So exactly month
of the day, I said to my husband, We're going
to the pool, and he was once again raised the
old eyebrows and rolled the old eyes, and he says, oh,
here we go again. He says, what's made you decide
to do this? I said, I just need to. So
Stumpy had healed and was fine and was all okay
(19:45):
to go in the pool. Obviously that was all checked
out first. So yeah, I jumped into this pool this
particular day, and I said to my husband, right, get
your phone out and take a video, because I said
this could be quite entertaining. So I honestly had no
idea y what was going to happen. So we jumped
into the pool, stuck mcgoggles on. First of all, how
do I put mcgoggles on? So that was a challenge
(20:08):
right there. So yeah, managed to get them on with
the one arm, probably got my nose a bit twisted
in the process a few times, but yeah, got them on,
and I just went under the water, kicked off from
the back of the pool and came up, threw the
right arm over and I thought, yeah, this is all right,
threw Stumpy over and I was like, ooks, we're not
(20:30):
going anywhere. There was just nothing there. So there was
only the right arm. But we made it. We carried on.
I really knew I didn't really know what it was
going to look like. When I got to the end.
But I got to the end and I just stopped
and my goggles just filled up with water. And that
wasn't water from the pool. That was because I was
(20:51):
so emotional that I had done it. So I knew
from there, right, Stumpy, we're on a journey. We're gone
for it. So I thought, right, I looked up Paralympics
and there was a Triflon. Triflon was in the Paralympics.
So I decided, right, I was going to have a crack.
So we went down the process of doing the New
Zealand Nationals Para Champs. Not too bad came out of that, Yeah,
(21:14):
and I won that and then it was the next
process was to do the Oceania, which was a trip
over to OZ and it was like this is all
out of my comfort zone, but hey, we're doing it.
And yeah. We went over there and I raced against
another some other athletes that were in the same category
as me. I came out with a silver, so I
(21:36):
was like, stumping, we're not doing too bad, head, So
we carried on and yeah, and it ended up becoming
New Zealand's first elite paratriathlete, traveling around the world quite
a bit at races trying to gain a spot for
the Paralympics. We were doing okay. Then it sort of
(21:57):
got to the financial side of it, because there's no
fun until you get into the team. It was getting
rather costly, so I had to sort of stop and
make a decision whether I was going to continue on.
And then COVID hit, So it was basically like a sign.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
To me.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
I thought, well, you know, things happen for a reason,
maybe this is my reason. And just before that it hit,
I got my most treasured medal, which was at the
Tokyo qualifying race where I ended up getting a bronze.
So to me, that was to me, that was my achievement.
I'd achieved what, you know, I'd set out and then,
(22:34):
as I say, COVID hit. So it was like, okay,
that's a sign. So yeah, we didn't follow on down
that pathway. So then there was this other thing. I thought, well,
what are we doing? Ow stun'ty. We can't leave it there,
you know, what else can we do? What else can
we try and do? All of a sudden, this I
(22:55):
saw something gone email or social media and it was
Coast to Coast New Zealand and I thought, oh my goodness,
never ever done multi sport, never done anything like that.
What does it involve? So his old noodle Nana shares looking,
you know, on the laptop, trying to see what Coast
to Coast was all about, and I saw that it
involved kayaking, and I'm like, oh, no way, how am
(23:20):
I going to kayak? This means I would rarely definitely
go in circles, you know, if I got into a boat,
never ever sitting in a boat before, and not knowing
what for the first thing, they're not boats, the kayaks, right,
He's me calling them boats. So yeah, having no no
idea whatsoever what was entailed in this. So I actually
(23:42):
just googled Palms the North Canoe Club and there was
a gentleman's name come up. So I just made contact
with him and said to him, can we catch up?
You know, I'd like to have a chat blah blah blah.
And I told him what I was looking at. Well,
I told him that, you know, I know of somebody
that is a looking at doing Coast to coast, you know,
would you be keen to sort of help? And he goes, oh, yeah, absolutely,
(24:06):
no problems at all. And I said well, you might
want to rethink it in a minute when I tell
you who it is. And he says, oh, do you
think i'll know them? And I said, well you will
do now and he says, oh, yeah, who is it?
And I said he's sitting straight opposite her. And he
just looked at me and he said, you've only got
one ma. I said yeah, and that was it and
(24:28):
we clicked and he couldn't have been more obliging. He
was just an honestly, since then, he was just such
a friend and he is still such a friend. So
here him and I are trying to work out how
we're going to do this quietly. So the next stage
was to contact Coast to coast of course, and check
(24:50):
to see if they would be willing to let Stumpy
and I enter. And so they contacted and talked to
their safety team, their safety river team, and they came
up that they would be happy for me to do
it as long as I was in a kite with
somebody else, so that they knew if we tipped, if
I tipped out, I had somebody there to support me,
(25:10):
assist me, made me whatever was needed, because obviously there's
no ambulances alongside of the river.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Is that?
Speaker 3 (25:18):
So that's where I said to Brett, I need somebody,
you know who? Can you think of anybody? He said,
You're looking at him. And our friendship has just flourished
so much. He's become such a close friend. His wife
has become such a close friend. Yeah, it's a pretty
special friendship. Here we were and we didn't know how
we were going to make this work. How was Stompy
(25:38):
going to be attached to a paddle? So Brett, being
a plumber, came up with this most amazing, good old
Kiwi ingenuity. Just a hose clamp stuck on the end
of a socket which the Limb Center had made for me,
and it was just held on by a one dollar
rubber o ring. And that's how we survived down the Yeah,
(26:01):
the seventy k kayak course off coast to coast last year,
and we managed to do the whole thing. We survived.
Was it pretty Brett was unaware a lot of the
time because I was behind him, I was seated behind
him that a lot of the time. I was actually
in severe pain and there was a lot of tears.
(26:24):
But would I let Brett know that at the time,
No way, because just putting Stumpy inside a socket is
very painful because I also suffer with this not so
much phantom pain. Yes, I do have severe fantom pain.
So at all times I feel like my arm is
(26:44):
still in that same position that I used to call
in that other terms, and that's where your brain remembers
that it was in the last position before it was amputated.
And I can just still feel my hand and it's
just severe pins and needles throbbing. So with this other
(27:05):
form of what should we call it pain, it's very intense.
It's called CRIPS Complex Regional Pain syndrome, and it's just
severe electric shocks firing NonStop. So of course just having
anything around and on Stumpy is very painful, but having
(27:26):
to put a socket on that you literally have to
wind yourself into and on is extremely painful. But you
know what, you know, each time we've done another paddle,
I just knew it was one less paddle I had
to do, and I was on a mission. The Limb
Center had been such awesome, you know, I've just got
such a great relationship with those guys down there, absolutely
(27:48):
incredible people. They came up with its name when they
found out what I was looking at doing and they say, Shaz,
we have to find a name for you. So they've
done this sort of competition there at the Limb Center Wellington,
and all staff members put in their thoughts and their
ideas and they came up with this most incredible name.
And it's with me all the time. Now that's who
(28:10):
people call me. Limb It Liss shares Dag. So not limitless,
but it's Limbless. And I just said, that is incredible,
that is us. So that's how Limitless shars Dag was created.
And so every time I do something, I think of
that name, and I think of all the people out
(28:31):
there that have got challenges. Pat you know, we can
do anything. We can achieve anything if we want to,
so you know, turn that negative into a positive. It's
one of my sayings and the other one that I
always say to myself when I am struggling, which was
many a time in that Kayak, was don't give in.
(28:55):
It comes from within. It's what's in here. You know,
if you want it and it's in your heart, you
will achieve it. There's been many times when I didn't
know whether I would be able to do what I
wanted to do, but I wanted to do it for
everybody that was out there like me. I don't like
the word disabled. I use the word challenged because I'm
(29:16):
not disabled. I can still do everything I want to
do because I adapt the situation to make it work.
You know, I've got this absolutely incredible myo mechanical arm
that the Limb Centers has got for me. It's a risk,
don't get me wrong. There'll be some awesome party tricks
coming out of all this. And just imagine this glass
(29:39):
of wine in my hand and doing a three sixty rotation,
you know, with this wrist. Pretty cool, huh. You know,
So I've got this. I've got these hands, I've got
these fingers, I've got a wrist, and then I've also
got an elbow. But unfortunately I can't wear it at
the moment because of the pain levels. But I've got
that there, and I vowed them to clar that after
(30:00):
Coast to Coast, I was that was my next challenge,
to be able to wear that, to be able to
go around and do party tricks, to be able to
give people the bird, you know, with this, with this
this mechanical finger. You know, it's all hard of being
who I am, but having fun along my journey, I don't.
(30:21):
I must say, I don't go around doing that to
people honestly, But you know, to be able to do
things like that in a fun surrounding and for people
to laugh at my journey and to be able to
laugh at me but with me is pretty important to me.
I can't laugh at myself there's something wrong because honestly,
(30:43):
I do some real weird stuff at times, and some
of the things I do, I think you dork, you know.
I just love the whole journey. So yes, I did
finish Coast to Coast. I did succeed my mission. Have
I inspired others? Have I shown others that we can
still achieve things, We can do things. It's just a
(31:06):
matter of looking at it, doing things in a different way,
but we can still do them. So is at the
end of my next journey. It's just the beginning again.
You would not credit it, Claire, But just before we
connected in this podcast, an email came through from Coast
(31:29):
to Coast saying that entries were open and they were
aware that after I finished it last year that I
wanted to have a go at doing the whole thing solo.
So when I say the whole whole thing solo, I
am have just signed up just prior to this as
a two day entrant to do it completely solo, and
(31:50):
that includes the seventy case kayak in my own boat solo. Wow.
So it is going to be a massive, massive task
for Stumpy and nine. But can I do it? Who knows?
We don't know, but we won't know until we try, right,
So once again, you just push that barrier out a
bit further and hopefully inspire others and show others you
(32:13):
know that we're here, we can achieve, don't doubt us. Yeah,
So I just hope I can inspire some others to
be able to do what I'm doing. Yeah. Well, you know,
it doesn't have to be closed. Just find a little challenge.
Just enjoy the journey along that challenge. Whether you achieve
(32:34):
it or not, it doesn't matter. But you've had a journey,
you've tried, you've found ways to do things in a
different perspective, but you've given something to go. I think
that's that's the only way you can ever be truly
happy with yourself is if you've tried something and you've
given it a go. If you succeed, massive, massive respect
(32:55):
to whoever succeeds there their goals. But for us set
our challenge, I think we deserve that extra respect and
that extra pad on the back because we have put
our heart and our soul, our commitment, and our adapting
into something to show who we are. Never never ever
(33:17):
doubt us.
Speaker 4 (33:18):
Yeah, so you know I am saying out of what
I've achieved now, I might only have one one, but
us can still fly.
Speaker 3 (33:29):
Who can think of things like that? It helps them
along their journey.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
We're just going to take a short break so you
can hear a word from our sponsor.
Speaker 5 (33:39):
HAFCO has been part of the fabric of rural New
Zealand since nineteen oh four, partnering with livestock farmers across
New Zealand, supplying quality beef and lamb to markets across
the world. This naturally means f CO works closely with
individual farming families and wider rural communities, providing the support
where it's needed, nurturing the roots of New Zealand's farming
(34:01):
success story. That's a f coat, give me to the bone.
Since nineteen oh four, A.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
Million things swirling around on my head. Actually after that
wonderful description, and you capture it so well. You have
inspired people. We know that, and that's that's incredible. And
we've talked a lot about some of those challenges that
you've overcome, and without wanting to sort of dwell on
it too much, I imagine that there are times when
(34:29):
you're just like, you know what, stuff this? You know,
this is just a bit shit. How does shares deal
with days like that and moments like that? And what
are those practical things that you I suppose use in
your mind potentially in your body. Have you got anything
(34:49):
that you use? And because I know that if it
works for you, it's got to work for everyone.
Speaker 3 (34:55):
You know what I use? The best thing is to
be able to smile. Honestly, it's it's the most simple thing.
It's the easiest thing. But if you can smile, and
if you can walk to a mirror and look at
yourself smiling and you can see that that reflection is happy,
everyone else can see the same thing. But if you're
feeling down and droopy, drawed, you know you're only going
(35:19):
to draw everyone else down. Be happy, whether you want
to be or not. Put a smile on your dial,
get outside, get some fresh air and just surround yourself
with friends. Don't close anyone off, never ever close people off.
I mean, I haven't got a great relationship with my family,
(35:39):
my parents, but I have met another family, and that's
Fiona and Anie Joan and Uncle Eric. Okay, they're not
with us now, but they're always in my heart and
I always think of them always. And the happy times
that I've had. You know, I've had so many happy times.
I've had more many happy times and I've had bad times.
(36:00):
And why is that because I've chosen to be like,
have those happy times as smile as all you need,
smile and fresh air, you can't go wrong.
Speaker 2 (36:12):
That's just such good advice. I love that, so simple,
such good advice. It's beautiful. So I've got one last
question for you today's shares. So we have we've heard
all about some really incredible achievements, some things that have
challenged you, some things that have taken you to some
(36:33):
some tough places, some things that have taken to some
absolutely wonderful, jubilant places. I would say, what are you
hoping to achieve over the next twelve months. I know
that we've just committed to the coast to Coast and
is there anything else that's coming up for shares? Limitless
Shares Dad a.
Speaker 3 (36:53):
Couple of years back, I've forgot. I actually also signed
up to a half Mine Man, and I just realized
last week. I got this email saying that my entry
has been transferred to because of all of the COVID
and everything, it's now it's happening this year. So yeah,
apparently I'm doing a half iron Man then thet the
(37:14):
beginning of December as well, so it's going to be
a massive year. So yes, Stumpy and I have to
get in that water again unfortunately, something I really really loathe,
but it's something that's going to push me again. And
also training for Coast to Coast. So between Bretton and
(37:34):
my husband Owen, you know, and Jess and my friends
around me. I've got one very good friend Helen who Woarboys,
who is actually the mayor here in the Manuatu and Fielding.
She's been such a great support. She's actually my support
person as well as on with Bretton Jess at Coast,
you know, just surrounding myself with them, and of course
(37:58):
I've got a great training buddy. I just been happy
going along on the journey. Yeah, living the dream, absolutely dream,
I really am.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
Yeah, that's beautiful. I think that if there's such a
stunning note to end on, you know, if I summarize
this conversation today, it would have to be absolute positivity.
You know, something that's been Yeah, something that's been a
really difficult part of your life has become the best.
And I just I love that. I really applaud you.
(38:31):
I want to say, actually, one, how much we really
appreciate having you on the podcast. It's wonderful to hear
your story. It's wonderful to actually busk in your positivity,
if I'm honest, and also just to be able to
share some of that positivity and inspiration with other people
(38:51):
with our listeners in gosh, you know, I myself have
been wanting to do the Coast coast for about five years,
and now I'm thinking, God clear, get off your bum
and get this done. Go do it with shares? How good? Right? Account?
Speaker 3 (39:08):
Okay, I'll see your entry in three right, Claire.
Speaker 2 (39:13):
Okay, okay, you heard her here first first, but no, genuinely,
thank you so much. And yeah, if there is one
thing I think we can we can all understand it,
it is just to have a really good attitude to
life and that just absolutely makes it right, So thank
you very much. Rural Women New Zealand is a community
(39:36):
of like minded women who are doing amazing things in
their respective regions in communities.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
This podcast celebrates the achievements, successes and stories of our
Rural Women, which are also the foundations for our organization's
rich history.
Speaker 2 (39:51):
We want you to be part of our future story,
so please join us by clicking on the link and
the show notes, and we look forward to welcoming you
into the fold in
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