September 28, 2025 • 27 mins
"You're deaf but you're not deaf enough."
I had the absolute pleasure of sitting down with the brilliant Mikaela Magro, a 19-year-old legend from the Central Coast who plays for the Australian Women's Deaf Football Team.
I had so many questions!
We chat about the amazing technology - like the magnet screwed to her skull (that doubles as a brilliant party trick), and the surprising rule that every player has to follow, to create a truly level playing field.
Mikaela is currently fundraising to get to the Deaf Olympics in Tokyo. If you can help her in any way at all, please head to:
https://deaf-koalas-deaflympics.raiselysite.com/mikaela-magro
And her instagram is: @mikaela.magro1
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:04):
With Rabbit. I'm Rabbit.
I record this podcast inside a cute little retro caravan from
1967 that I've tore around all over the place.
Fan podcast with Rabbit. Would it be right for me to say
that my guest on the episode today is deaf?
Yep, I categorise myself as deaf.
Which? You wouldn't think would work
for a podcast. No, no.
(00:26):
So there's a lot of people hard of hearing deaf, hearing
impaired, but deaf's kind of just the overall umbrella term
because I. Like to know the right
terminology that I'm using. I had a girl in here and she's
autistic or has autism or lives with autism and I'll ask her
because it's her and her and hermum gave different answers.
(00:49):
I can't remember which way around it was but one was is
autistic and the other was liveswith autism.
I think it was mum that said that because she didn't want
heard to be defined as this thing.
You are autistic. It's no you have autism or you
live with autism, but it's not all of who you are.
Yeah, you're not the title, you just happen to live with the.
Yeah, and but I did see about deaf people.
(01:12):
Is that deaf? Is it's not a bad word?
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, because I thought it would
be hearing impaired would be theterm you use for everyone.
When I was growing up I did use hearing impaired a lot, but once
I joined the deaf community a lot more got a lot more
involved. I switched to deaf because it's
just easier. Yeah, OK, You're 19 years old.
(01:36):
As I sit here and look at you now, and as I'm talking to you
and you've got the headphones, the headset on here in the pod
van wouldn't even know. No, Yep.
I mean, I've heard a music loveras well play a few instruments.
Yeah, yeah. Tell us how it works.
How can you be deaf and hearing me perfectly right now?
Technology. Technology is amazing.
So I've got a hearing aid in my left ear, and then on my right
(01:59):
side I'm actually completely deaf.
So I use a Bajara tract, which uses bone conduction.
So it has a magnet that's basically screwed to my skull
and then vibrates the bones inside your ear, which then
transmits that into sounds that I can hear.
(02:19):
There are those bone conduction headphones you can get now and
apparently really good for womenis what I've heard that, you
know, go out walking fun cells or whatever and it allows them
to hear music and whatever, but your ears are still open so you
can hear anything happening around you or something.
Like that? Safer.
Yeah, and I tried them on and Julie had some and I tried them
on it. OK.
(02:40):
It's weird. Spooky.
Yeah. It's really weird but it's so
cool. I can actually listen to music
through my hearing aid as well. Like connected to Bluetooth.
So I'll be watching Netflix or something on my phone, my
parents will be yelling at me trying to get me to do something
and I'm just in my own zone watching something.
Yeah, I didn't realise selectivehearing was a form of.
Yeah. Deaf, yes, Yeah.
(03:02):
My dad suffers from that. Does he?
Yeah, Undiagnosed. Oh yeah, totally.
But probably some hearing loss as well.
So one side hearing aid, Yep. The other side, the bone
conduction, Yep. And does that give you, I want
to say stereo sound, but is it sort of level on both sides?
So I only got my Baja tracked when I was about 8 years old.
And so I kind of grew up being used to just having hearing aid
(03:26):
and then kind of just dealing with not really being able to
hear 100%. And then I got the Baja and it's
took, oh, definitely took a while to get used to the type of
sound. It's a lot more of like a, a
robotic sound, but everyone saysit sounds different to them, but
I don't know, you kind of just get used to it.
So for me, I'm kind of like, some people absolutely hate it
(03:47):
and refuse to use them. But to me, I'm kind of like,
well, it's either I use it and Ican hear or I don't use it and I
can't hear. Yeah, do I want to hear or do I
not want to hear? Yeah, I only really use it when
I'm out in public or with friends or family or something
because I just don't. It's kind of annoying.
I have so many questions as we go through this.
Yeah, of course. Go.
For it. So with both of those off, are
(04:09):
you completely deaf? Can you hear anything?
I can hear a little bit out of my left ear, yeah.
Takes a lot more focus to be able to hear.
Right. Well, you could like have a just
a straight up conversation with someone.
I could. It just be like, exhausting,
yeah. OK.
I mean even with the devices on socializing it's I was gonna
say. That it was pulled up at the
beach here and I was just sayingto someone at Terrible beach
(04:31):
right next to the surf club and got the most amazing, like
literally if you know Terrible and the surf club, I'm right out
the front of it. The steps that lead down to the
sand are like 5 meters from the back of the pod van.
It's all opened up. There's people going past.
I hear them talking about the pod van as they go by and
everything. And I said I'm going to be here
(04:52):
all day, this is going to be great.
I mean, what a great opportunityfor people to see the pod van.
And then about 5 minutes later Iwent.
I feel my social battery draining really quickly.
We were driving into the terrible and I was like, oh, too
many people. Do you ever take both devices
out just to get rid of the noise?
100% all the time. Yeah.
(05:14):
I love it. So good.
It's actually an advantage you have.
Yeah, exactly that. Would be the equivalent, I
guess, of us coming down the beach and just popping in
earplugs. I do wear like headphones at
home and listen to music. Yeah, cancelling headphones
because I am actually autistic and have ADHD as well, so if I'm
out public like on the train or shops or something I'll put the
(05:35):
headphones on yeah to try to dryit up the noise.
How are? You going right now?
Because apparently girls are really good at masking it.
Yeah, yeah, but it's draining. Oh yeah, as well.
Yeah, we're both gonna need a nap after this 100.
Percent go home, have a nap and do any work before I have my
tutorials tomorrow. You are 19 years old.
You are in the Australian women's deaf football team.
(05:59):
Is that right? Yeah, that's.
Cool. Yeah, it's awesome.
I started playing and training with the deaf football squad in
about I think it was like February 2023.
So we do training camps in Canberra at the Australian
Institute of Sport roughly everythree months or so.
But they're trying to move some down to Sydney and trying to
rotate around the country a little bit.
(06:21):
But yeah, it's amazing. A good little community, made
some great mates kind of stuck with each other for about a
week, living on top of each other.
That's. Huge for you to be able to do
that anyway because you just ranthrough all the autistic, ADHD,
the social battery, deaf, all these things.
You throw all that into it. Uni worth.
The easier thing would be to notgo and get involved in something
(06:42):
like. That.
That's really putting yourself out there, but you'd get a lot
out of it as well. Yeah, I've met some great
friends. Staying fit, staying healthy,
Definitely good for my mental health.
Yeah. Best thing for my mental health
is to go out, get in the sun, run around.
How old are we talking in the team?
I think our youngest is 14. Wow.
(07:03):
And the oldest we have is our goalkeeper.
I think she's about. She's probably gonna kill me for
saying this. I'm gonna say careful, I'm low
with what you're saying. I'd say like late. 30s, yeah,
OK, yeah. Are there varying degrees of
hearing ability in the team? OK, so in our team we have some
(07:24):
people are only slightly hearingimpaired and then we have people
who are completely deaf and relyon sign language.
I was laying 100%, but once you go to international tournaments
you have to have 55 decibels or lower in your better ear.
So that's the cut off range. Right.
So we might have, I don't know, say 30 girls come to our camp.
(07:45):
They might only have 15 that areeligible for international
tournaments. You can have complete deafness
in one ear, but then your other ear is completely fine and
you're not eligible. Your hearing is too good to
compete. So you're deaf, but you're not
deaf enough. Not deaf enough?
Yeah. Wow, wrap your head around that
one. Yeah, and I can't.
I tried to for a split second and my brain went the same for
(08:07):
you, mate. Yeah, so you've got the Deaf
Olympics coming up in November. And so that's not just football,
it's all events. So there's a women's and men's
basketball team, I think there'sbeach volleyball, there's a guy
doing 10 pin bowling. There's about 100 athletes
across 9 different sports from Australia.
That are going and it's in. Tokyo, yes, but the football's
(08:29):
based in the jail village in Fukushima.
OK, yeah, that's about four hours by bullet train out of
Tokyo, right? I believe the.
Bullet train's fine. Don't.
Quote me on that. Never been to Japan so I'm very
excited. Man, it's the best.
It's so cool there. It's going at the moment.
Yeah, you kind of. So we went years ago, and I feel
like everyone's so polite. It's so clean.
(08:52):
There's this crazy thing that happens when the trains pull up
and everyone lines up at the doors and lines up like
perfectly, and then leaves a gapdown beside them for the people
getting off. And everyone waits until
everyone has gotten off before anyone goes on.
I wish they did that. The Sydney Wow, it's.
So weird to say and just lovely,lovely people.
(09:15):
You're gonna have a great time. There.
I love sushi. I've always really wanted to go
to Hiroshima, go to the museum. I've heard it's intense, but
it's really educational, so I'm really excited to you're.
Doing that while you're there, yeah.
I said to my parents, because we're, I'm in competition and in
camp for about 3 weeks and then my family and I think we're
doing a week to a week and a half travel.
Yeah. Because I mean, we are still
(09:36):
there. Exactly.
And I said to them, I don't really care what we do, but
that's I've been wanting to go since I was a kid.
Yeah, if we're going, we're going there.
You might not come back, you might be one of those Olympic
athletes, like when the Games are on, they just go missing
afterwards and they don't get onthe flight back.
No, I think I miss the beach toomuch.
Yeah, miss surfing? Swimming.
How does the game work? As far as I've heard, this flags
(09:58):
instead of a ref whistle. So we'll start right at the
start of the day when you are onthe coach to the competition.
As soon as you pull up and you're about to get off the
coach, you have to take your hearing devices off and they all
have to stay on the coach. If you're found to be in the
facility with hearing devices onor with them on your person,
(10:19):
your team's automatically disqualified.
The team. So not even the individual
player, the whole team. That's I like the way that I
like them doing it that way because otherwise you'd risk it
for yourself possibly, but you're not going to at the risk
of having your team disqualified.
Yeah, wow. So.
If you step off the coach, you can't hear.
On literally a level playing fields.
(10:41):
Yeah, so it's really good because once you're in the
change rooms, all the teams are on or in theory, on an equal
playing field. Yeah, once you're in the change
room, you're really relying on the coaches, riding on the white
board, drawing pictures, drawingdiagrams, the people that
understand Osland. We always have an Osland
interpreter with us. Personally, I really, really
(11:02):
understand about the alphabet and a few signs here and there.
Wow. But I'm definitely trying.
Definitely something I need to work on.
Interesting you got to 19 years old and you don't know sign
language. I'm sure my family and I like
made-up signs when I was a kid and I.
Chucking up signs is not learning.
No, no, no. No, no, no, no, no, no.
(11:24):
Thumbs up. Thumbs up pace.
Yeah, but I can. As long as you know the
alphabet, you're pretty much setbecause you can try to just
finger spell. Oh, OK.
Yeah, it just takes a lot longer.
Yeah, sometimes people will be signing at me and I like, I know
bits and pieces. Yeah, and I'm definitely picking
them. Every camp I go to.
I learn more things and we normally try and do in the
(11:44):
evening, we do activities normally around sign language.
So we're playing a game similar to telephone when we're in camp
Lost. So the person at the front
receives what the word was. Yeah.
So it might have been, I think one of them was like chocolate
cake. And then we had to go down the
line and sign what it was. And then the person at the other
(12:07):
end had to run up to the person that was running the activity
and tell them what the word was and sign to them what the word
was. That's.
Like the old Chinese whispers, but I don't think we'd call it
Chinese whispers anymore. Yeah, but but the deaf version
where you're signing it, Yeah. In a sense along the line, kind
of like Captain Ball telephone. What's the Pictionary first
(12:28):
sign? Oh, no, people wouldn't want you
on their team. No idea what they're doing.
Yeah, the. Chocolate cake 1 was definitely
interesting. Yeah, but.
Do you even know what that is like?
How to how to sign it? Chocolate cake.
Chocolate cake? No, still.
So many people in the team don'tknow how to sign either.
It's only like. I was going to say, are you the
(12:50):
only one? So we all rely on our devices.
Like it's different nowadays andhas been for a while because you
said you got that when you were.Eight, yes, have have had
revision surgery because I splitthe scar over from the chase.
Mum was definitely happy about that.
Yeah. How'd you do it?
Luna Park, Yeah, I just run a roller coaster.
I didn't watch the ride before. I went on it and I shook you
(13:11):
side to side and had those hard plastic things on the side.
I just whacked my head on it, slipped my head open.
Cochlear went flying. Yeah.
Cochlear. Is sorry, Baja mine's actually a
Baja cochlear. It's kind of the same thing, but
it's sits on the top of your earfrom what I understand and I
don't really it's. More like just not going to
hearing aid isn't it? You can just take it off.
Yeah, but it doesn't go in the ear.
(13:32):
It just sits on top of the ear and there's like a little wire
and a magnet goes onto the. Amazing.
But the Baja, is that what it's called?
Yep. So I think mine's technically
called a bahar attract, but I just call it a cochlear and
that's. Actually drilled into your
skull. So there's a magnet on my skull,
and then the actual device has amagnet on the outside of it as
(13:53):
well. But the.
Oh, wow. OK, you've just taken it off.
Yeah. How's the one stuck to your
skull? It's a it's a magnet, so it's a
magnet on a magnet. Yeah, but the magnet bit on your
skull has to be permanently on your skull somehow, yeah.
I'm pretty sure it's. I'm assuming it's.
True, you don't even. Know how it's just.
You haven't even questioned how this thing is stuck to your
(14:14):
head. Got no idea.
Have you ever stuck other thingsto it?
Yeah, paper clips, magnets, and it's my favorite party trick.
Yep, you're gonna have fun with it sticking things.
Up on the side. Free people out.
To the magnet on your head. Family gatherings, People forget
that you have it. Yeah.
Oh my God. And somebody's stuck on my head
(14:35):
now it's. You're fine, Yes, using your
head as well. Even like the Magsafe stuff?
Yeah, I've actually tried. I should try that later.
Stop it. I don't think it's strong
enough. So when you.
We're completely caught on a tangent.
This is always gonna happen. Yeah, because I have so many
questions. Yeah.
Have you been to Guandalin Bowling Club?
(14:56):
They're right there on the shores of Lake Macquarie.
They do delicious meals upstairsin the Four Shore Bistro and
Cafe, which is run by the Dish Catering Group.
So, you know, it's good stuff and you can dine out on the
balcony looking out over the lake.
It is beautiful. We got the cute little 4 shore
kiosk for a coffee and snacks right by the jetty.
(15:17):
The entertainment's top notch. They got Friday night seafood
raffles and Sunday sessions withlive music in the beer garden.
You wanna find out what's happening at the club?
Check out their Facebook page orvisit gwandalenbowlingclub.com.
dot AU. King Kumper, Mighta Chan have
been big supporters of the Pod Dan podcast right from the
start. And you get all the stuff from
them that you'd expect to. You get plans, you get all the
(15:39):
Weber stuff, you get all the steel gear, the amazing
principal kitchens, but it's thestuff that you don't expect.
Like we had an elderly lady comeinto the store and she brought
her remote control from her television and she didn't know
how to get it to work. And we opened it up and saw that
she just needed new batteries. And then she told me that her
husband had recently passed away, so he was the one that did
(16:02):
all that stuff for her and she didn't have anybody around to do
that, so she needed us. So we took batteries out of the
packet and put them in the remote and we helped her out and
made her day. That's what she got.
And the mighty helpful King Campbell Minor Gen. with Rabbit.
When you're actually playing in the game, then it's flags.
(16:24):
So, yeah, so the linesman in typical football have flags, but
the central ref in deaf footballalso has a flag as well as a
whistle. Yeah.
So if there's a foul or an off site or something like that,
everyone just kind of has to wait for the play to stop, so
people would just be running. I just thought of a dirty move
(16:46):
that you could do in deaf football.
Someone's coming towards you andyou just point back behind them
like. They're telling them.
Someone's raised a flag and thenyou with the ball go really and
look back. Nah.
Nah. Psych.
That's oh, that's that's up until my.
Reptile not in the spirit of thegame.
There would have to be somethingin the rules about someone
(17:07):
calling a fake. There's a flag up behind you.
I have to ask for photos about that one.
Yeah, got me thinking now. Oh really?
Can I use that to my advantage? I.
Really think that's not in the spirit of the game, because I
would think that the I don't. Know a lot of stuff happens.
It's not in the spirit of the game.
Yeah, that's for real. Is there the same amount of
diving in their football as there is?
(17:28):
I mean, sorry. Thanks for watching the Men's
Alliance. Really.
Yeah, more in the men's. What's the A league?
Yeah. What's the A men's football?
I find that so funny man. When, and I'm talking about the
ones where when they go to the replay and then they show it in
slow motion and there's absolutely zero contact, not
even near, and the person goes flying and then they are in the
(17:49):
most excruciating pain ever until the penalty's not given or
whatever and then they get up and.
Just play on it. It's funny when they're rolling
around holding one knee and thenall of a sudden they switch to
the other knee. If you're getting a console, how
is it? Not embarrassing to you as a
player. I understand you're trying to
get the penalty and you're trying to get the foul and be
able to have the goal scoring opportunity come on.
(18:09):
OK, I've never really thought about it like that.
Like as in actually it's part ofthe game to get your team the
penalty. Gotta be able to get the
advantage. Take it and also depends on the
team reversing and the ref you have as well.
Other rest would just play advantage, Other rest would just
tell you to pull your head in and get on with the game.
That's funny. And some other words.
What are some of the biggest challenges with playing deaf
(18:31):
football? When you're actually playing the
game, it's probably trying to communicate with your teammates.
So it's obviously a lot of visual communication, body
language, so obviously sign language.
But when you're on the other side of the field to your team
mate. Sign language as you're playing.
Yeah, that would. Be more like before a play or
(18:54):
something when a not on the run.You can't throw signs on the
run. What our team does is we make up
our own signs. So in case I'm assuming, I don't
really know it to be 100%, but I'm assuming it's so if the
other team happens to know some Oslin, yeah, they can't really
know. That's fine.
I think that's exactly the same as like rugby union, your line
out calls. I've got.
(19:16):
You've got calls. It might be 4-7 chocolate cake.
Yeah, and that means it's going to the fifth player back and
then it goes on to. You've got your plays.
In most sports, this is yours isbeing done with your own version
of sign language. Of course the problem is someone
signs chocolate cake to you and you I have no idea what that
means. I love that chocolate cake just
(19:36):
become the. Thing I know that's the thing
I'm. You're gonna get a piece of
chocolate cake light off from. I really want some chocolate
cake now anyway. All right, so you've got
obviously the fact that you. Yeah, the communication is hard
when you're playing. What else is it?
Silent out on the field, as in no one's yelling to each other.
So I mean, calling for the ball,I, for one, definitely still
(19:57):
scream at the top of my lungs for the ball.
Yeah. But you do get players that are
completely silent. You get some players that are
like completely deaf, can't hearanything.
They'll make noises like grunts or screams and not realize
they're making those noises, if that makes sense.
Yeah, totally. Yeah, obviously I language
pointing some of our signs is like a bounce pass.
(20:19):
Oh, yeah. But on the run though.
So on the run, you do that, Yeah.
Which if you that are just listening to this, it's like
banging your two index fingers together.
Yeah. And that's.
Like a triangle sort of bounce. So you make eye contact, you do
that and then it's also. Just a lot of team chemistry and
being able to know how your teamoperates, how your team works.
(20:41):
But then when you're only reallytraining for three days every
three months, that team chemistry can be a bit.
Yeah. And it can't be any more than
that because there's no funding,is there?
Deaf Football Australia themselves do get some support
from the Shed Foundation, but all our international travel,
(21:03):
the players themselves paying togo to camps, travel,
accommodation, meals, all that sort of stuff is out of our own
pocket. So Shed Foundation and some of
our other sponsors do subsidizedit, but it's still, for example,
a camp in Canberra, excluding fuel for travel, be about $600
in three days. Yeah, Japan looking to be around
(21:27):
roughly 10 grand out of profit. So how do you come up with that
money? I've got a Raisley page running,
which is kind of like a GoFundMe.
Oh yeah, it's a lot of work. And then trying to balance
medical appointments, uni work, training.
Yeah, yeah. How does it work with mum and
Dad and all of that stuff? Are they driving you down?
So yeah, they normally come to Canberra because why not?
(21:49):
Yeah, it's also quite a decent drive if you drive.
I can, I just haven't done my pace test.
Yeah, but I've booked it in. I've booked it in.
Yeah, are. There any restrictions with you
as far as driving goes? Anyone deaf?
There are restrictions. That's a good question.
When you don't know. When I don't know because I
don't really have to worry aboutit.
Yeah, you really, really committed to this whole thing.
(22:10):
No, no, no, no. I really think that it's the
technology that's a. Yeah, it's technology definitely
does help people. Yeah.
Do you? Oh jeez, hang on, the mayor's
just walking past. I'll just get a minute for one
second. The mayor, Laurie, Hello.
Good day, Laurie, good mate. How you?
Going good bend my. Knees globber then, then you've
(22:33):
got it done. Watch your head better up coming
through the door mate. How are you, mate?
Good to see you. This is Michaela.
She's 19. She's from Woy.
Woy. And she's off to the Deaf
Olympics in Tokyo. All right, Yeah.
Plays for the Australian deaf women's soccer team.
Man was fun. Oh, of course.
Yep. Hopefully the women's do all
this year. They're.
Just appointed the court. Yeah.
(22:54):
But I think they're losing quitea few players.
Yeah, left Taylor Ray, Left. I have a feeling Easy Joe
Manners will be leaving. Yeah, hopefully not.
Where are you with the Mariners now?
The person who's waiting to takeover the club from Charles, who
have brought him to the table. Yeah, because they don't
apparently have an owner, do they?
No. Oh, they've got the old one.
He wants out. So if he if he comes in, it
(23:16):
looks like he'll come in. He'll come in and some.
Yeah. Keep being the mayor and then
yeah, so I'll not be a full timegiggle.
Right. Oh, he'll all chip in and buy
it. Yeah, just.
It's a couple that's. Fine.
It's the ongoing wars. He's last.
Yeah. Yeah, he's.
Like the lowest funded club in the A league?
(23:36):
Well, Western United's not even a club anymore are they?
Are they born out OK? A good look the nails by gosh
take. Your seat, he's just do you want
to jump in for a? Jump in my knees have to I've
been down here. I've told the messy for home and
half playing it which is warmer.All right.
And then both knees. No, it's not a comfortable
position to be standing there. It was lovely to meet you.
(23:58):
All right, fair on, mate. See you.
See you. Right.
Did you go for a swim this morning?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is like the 1800s.
Yeah. I'm sitting down here at the
beach having a chat to the mayorwhile the town crier is.
I'll pass this chaos. How are you?
Bye. Absolutely chaos.
I love it. Well, there's you, just chatting
to the man. Brain, Yeah.
Ex Mariners coach I. Thought I recognized.
(24:20):
I was gonna say it at the time, and then I thought, oh, I don't
know. Yeah.
So that's Laurie McKenna. Damn, I should have said
something. It's all right, we got the
introduction done and. Put in a good one.
You know, with those kind of things and people like Laurie,
it's a matter of being on the radar, you know, and he knows so
many people and you just never know where that can lead, where
someone may be looking to support someone.
(24:43):
Do something around football andhe'd get, you know what?
There's a girl I heard about who's going to be going off and
doing this thing. You never know.
You just never know because that's your big thing right now,
right, is the fundraising you'vegot to get.
I saw it as $12,000 and that's to get you to Tokyo, to the
opening ceremony, to all the events, all all the stuff that
you're doing around it. I can use that funding for gym
(25:03):
memberships because currently I'm not a member of a gym.
I've just been doing my own thing.
Yeah. So that'll definitely help me
become a better player and then I can put that money towards
future camps. Trouble to and from Canberra
because it feels so expensive. This is good I hope we're going
to find some people through thisthat are going to be able to
(25:24):
help you out How cool that rightso how this all came about pure
plan management who I recorded an episode with and they work in
the NDIS space and they know of you through.
Limitless ability, yeah, is how we're connected.
I'm connected to pure plan management, right?
And then Coast Abilities also sponsoring.
Me and both of those are sponsoring you, yes, and helping
(25:44):
you out. But limitless ability is who is
connected as a pure play management.
And MB from Pure Plan, she reached out to me and she had
paid for an ad essentially that I was going to be making for
their business and we hadn't started on it yet.
And she went, hey, can I donate that to someone else?
I was like, sure, that's different.
I've never had that before. And she told me about you and
(26:05):
she said is there a way of usingthat time that we have purchased
to promote what Michaela's doingand hopefully get some?
Amazing. Yeah.
I'm so thankful for my support worker through Limitless Ability
is friends with her right and has worked with her in the past.
I hope through this that you're going to get more support to
help you in your fundraising. How do people find it?
(26:27):
I mean, I'll put a link here in my show notes of this.
Follow me on Instagram Michaela dot magro one on Instagram.
I'll give you the link for that.Michaela spoke funky as well.
Is it? MIKAELA and.
That's about it. People do MAKAYLA, there's a lot
of different. No, I'm a MIKAELA, yeah.
(26:48):
Yeah, cool. In my brain.
Awesome. Yeah, sounds good to me.
Then again, that's in my brain. So yeah, it probably is weird
then. I mean, I've grown up listening
to on the radio, so probably whymy brain's stop.
It. Yeah, I never even know.
I don't know you. Used to come to like when I was
in primary school, you come to like the morning breakfast
things. Which school?
I was at St. John's and then I was at
(27:09):
Chertsey, but I don't think he went to the church.
Right. He would go and do the broadcast
for the Breaky show from the primary school.
It was fun. We love those things, Yeah.
Grow up and listen to you on thecar troops.
It's pretty cool. Cool.
And now fan going a little bit. Now you're still fan going a
little bit. Now you are part of it which is
awesome. Hey thanks heaps for jumping in.
I've really enjoyed the chat. I've learnt stacks more about
(27:31):
this and I'm sure everyone else has as well.
And the links are in the show notes and also on pod band
socials as well so you can get behind Michaela and help her get
across to Tokyo. Good luck for November.
Thank you so much, I really appreciate it.
Podcast with Rabbit.
With Rabbit. I'm Rabbit.
I record this podcast inside a cute little retro caravan from
1967 that I've tore around all over the place.
Fan podcast with Rabbit. Would it be right for me to say
that my guest on the episode today is deaf?
Yep, I categorise myself as deaf.
Which? You wouldn't think would work
for a podcast. No, no.
(00:26):
So there's a lot of people hard of hearing deaf, hearing
impaired, but deaf's kind of just the overall umbrella term
because I. Like to know the right
terminology that I'm using. I had a girl in here and she's
autistic or has autism or lives with autism and I'll ask her
because it's her and her and hermum gave different answers.
(00:49):
I can't remember which way around it was but one was is
autistic and the other was liveswith autism.
I think it was mum that said that because she didn't want
heard to be defined as this thing.
You are autistic. It's no you have autism or you
live with autism, but it's not all of who you are.
Yeah, you're not the title, you just happen to live with the.
Yeah, and but I did see about deaf people.
(01:12):
Is that deaf? Is it's not a bad word?
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, because I thought it would
be hearing impaired would be theterm you use for everyone.
When I was growing up I did use hearing impaired a lot, but once
I joined the deaf community a lot more got a lot more
involved. I switched to deaf because it's
just easier. Yeah, OK, You're 19 years old.
(01:36):
As I sit here and look at you now, and as I'm talking to you
and you've got the headphones, the headset on here in the pod
van wouldn't even know. No, Yep.
I mean, I've heard a music loveras well play a few instruments.
Yeah, yeah. Tell us how it works.
How can you be deaf and hearing me perfectly right now?
Technology. Technology is amazing.
So I've got a hearing aid in my left ear, and then on my right
(01:59):
side I'm actually completely deaf.
So I use a Bajara tract, which uses bone conduction.
So it has a magnet that's basically screwed to my skull
and then vibrates the bones inside your ear, which then
transmits that into sounds that I can hear.
(02:19):
There are those bone conduction headphones you can get now and
apparently really good for womenis what I've heard that, you
know, go out walking fun cells or whatever and it allows them
to hear music and whatever, but your ears are still open so you
can hear anything happening around you or something.
Like that? Safer.
Yeah, and I tried them on and Julie had some and I tried them
on it. OK.
(02:40):
It's weird. Spooky.
Yeah. It's really weird but it's so
cool. I can actually listen to music
through my hearing aid as well. Like connected to Bluetooth.
So I'll be watching Netflix or something on my phone, my
parents will be yelling at me trying to get me to do something
and I'm just in my own zone watching something.
Yeah, I didn't realise selectivehearing was a form of.
Yeah. Deaf, yes, Yeah.
(03:02):
My dad suffers from that. Does he?
Yeah, Undiagnosed. Oh yeah, totally.
But probably some hearing loss as well.
So one side hearing aid, Yep. The other side, the bone
conduction, Yep. And does that give you, I want
to say stereo sound, but is it sort of level on both sides?
So I only got my Baja tracked when I was about 8 years old.
And so I kind of grew up being used to just having hearing aid
(03:26):
and then kind of just dealing with not really being able to
hear 100%. And then I got the Baja and it's
took, oh, definitely took a while to get used to the type of
sound. It's a lot more of like a, a
robotic sound, but everyone saysit sounds different to them, but
I don't know, you kind of just get used to it.
So for me, I'm kind of like, some people absolutely hate it
(03:47):
and refuse to use them. But to me, I'm kind of like,
well, it's either I use it and Ican hear or I don't use it and I
can't hear. Yeah, do I want to hear or do I
not want to hear? Yeah, I only really use it when
I'm out in public or with friends or family or something
because I just don't. It's kind of annoying.
I have so many questions as we go through this.
Yeah, of course. Go.
For it. So with both of those off, are
(04:09):
you completely deaf? Can you hear anything?
I can hear a little bit out of my left ear, yeah.
Takes a lot more focus to be able to hear.
Right. Well, you could like have a just
a straight up conversation with someone.
I could. It just be like, exhausting,
yeah. OK.
I mean even with the devices on socializing it's I was gonna
say. That it was pulled up at the
beach here and I was just sayingto someone at Terrible beach
(04:31):
right next to the surf club and got the most amazing, like
literally if you know Terrible and the surf club, I'm right out
the front of it. The steps that lead down to the
sand are like 5 meters from the back of the pod van.
It's all opened up. There's people going past.
I hear them talking about the pod van as they go by and
everything. And I said I'm going to be here
(04:52):
all day, this is going to be great.
I mean, what a great opportunityfor people to see the pod van.
And then about 5 minutes later Iwent.
I feel my social battery draining really quickly.
We were driving into the terrible and I was like, oh, too
many people. Do you ever take both devices
out just to get rid of the noise?
100% all the time. Yeah.
(05:14):
I love it. So good.
It's actually an advantage you have.
Yeah, exactly that. Would be the equivalent, I
guess, of us coming down the beach and just popping in
earplugs. I do wear like headphones at
home and listen to music. Yeah, cancelling headphones
because I am actually autistic and have ADHD as well, so if I'm
out public like on the train or shops or something I'll put the
(05:35):
headphones on yeah to try to dryit up the noise.
How are? You going right now?
Because apparently girls are really good at masking it.
Yeah, yeah, but it's draining. Oh yeah, as well.
Yeah, we're both gonna need a nap after this 100.
Percent go home, have a nap and do any work before I have my
tutorials tomorrow. You are 19 years old.
You are in the Australian women's deaf football team.
(05:59):
Is that right? Yeah, that's.
Cool. Yeah, it's awesome.
I started playing and training with the deaf football squad in
about I think it was like February 2023.
So we do training camps in Canberra at the Australian
Institute of Sport roughly everythree months or so.
But they're trying to move some down to Sydney and trying to
rotate around the country a little bit.
(06:21):
But yeah, it's amazing. A good little community, made
some great mates kind of stuck with each other for about a
week, living on top of each other.
That's. Huge for you to be able to do
that anyway because you just ranthrough all the autistic, ADHD,
the social battery, deaf, all these things.
You throw all that into it. Uni worth.
The easier thing would be to notgo and get involved in something
(06:42):
like. That.
That's really putting yourself out there, but you'd get a lot
out of it as well. Yeah, I've met some great
friends. Staying fit, staying healthy,
Definitely good for my mental health.
Yeah. Best thing for my mental health
is to go out, get in the sun, run around.
How old are we talking in the team?
I think our youngest is 14. Wow.
(07:03):
And the oldest we have is our goalkeeper.
I think she's about. She's probably gonna kill me for
saying this. I'm gonna say careful, I'm low
with what you're saying. I'd say like late. 30s, yeah,
OK, yeah. Are there varying degrees of
hearing ability in the team? OK, so in our team we have some
(07:24):
people are only slightly hearingimpaired and then we have people
who are completely deaf and relyon sign language.
I was laying 100%, but once you go to international tournaments
you have to have 55 decibels or lower in your better ear.
So that's the cut off range. Right.
So we might have, I don't know, say 30 girls come to our camp.
(07:45):
They might only have 15 that areeligible for international
tournaments. You can have complete deafness
in one ear, but then your other ear is completely fine and
you're not eligible. Your hearing is too good to
compete. So you're deaf, but you're not
deaf enough. Not deaf enough?
Yeah. Wow, wrap your head around that
one. Yeah, and I can't.
I tried to for a split second and my brain went the same for
(08:07):
you, mate. Yeah, so you've got the Deaf
Olympics coming up in November. And so that's not just football,
it's all events. So there's a women's and men's
basketball team, I think there'sbeach volleyball, there's a guy
doing 10 pin bowling. There's about 100 athletes
across 9 different sports from Australia.
That are going and it's in. Tokyo, yes, but the football's
(08:29):
based in the jail village in Fukushima.
OK, yeah, that's about four hours by bullet train out of
Tokyo, right? I believe the.
Bullet train's fine. Don't.
Quote me on that. Never been to Japan so I'm very
excited. Man, it's the best.
It's so cool there. It's going at the moment.
Yeah, you kind of. So we went years ago, and I feel
like everyone's so polite. It's so clean.
(08:52):
There's this crazy thing that happens when the trains pull up
and everyone lines up at the doors and lines up like
perfectly, and then leaves a gapdown beside them for the people
getting off. And everyone waits until
everyone has gotten off before anyone goes on.
I wish they did that. The Sydney Wow, it's.
So weird to say and just lovely,lovely people.
(09:15):
You're gonna have a great time. There.
I love sushi. I've always really wanted to go
to Hiroshima, go to the museum. I've heard it's intense, but
it's really educational, so I'm really excited to you're.
Doing that while you're there, yeah.
I said to my parents, because we're, I'm in competition and in
camp for about 3 weeks and then my family and I think we're
doing a week to a week and a half travel.
Yeah. Because I mean, we are still
(09:36):
there. Exactly.
And I said to them, I don't really care what we do, but
that's I've been wanting to go since I was a kid.
Yeah, if we're going, we're going there.
You might not come back, you might be one of those Olympic
athletes, like when the Games are on, they just go missing
afterwards and they don't get onthe flight back.
No, I think I miss the beach toomuch.
Yeah, miss surfing? Swimming.
How does the game work? As far as I've heard, this flags
(09:58):
instead of a ref whistle. So we'll start right at the
start of the day when you are onthe coach to the competition.
As soon as you pull up and you're about to get off the
coach, you have to take your hearing devices off and they all
have to stay on the coach. If you're found to be in the
facility with hearing devices onor with them on your person,
(10:19):
your team's automatically disqualified.
The team. So not even the individual
player, the whole team. That's I like the way that I
like them doing it that way because otherwise you'd risk it
for yourself possibly, but you're not going to at the risk
of having your team disqualified.
Yeah, wow. So.
If you step off the coach, you can't hear.
On literally a level playing fields.
(10:41):
Yeah, so it's really good because once you're in the
change rooms, all the teams are on or in theory, on an equal
playing field. Yeah, once you're in the change
room, you're really relying on the coaches, riding on the white
board, drawing pictures, drawingdiagrams, the people that
understand Osland. We always have an Osland
interpreter with us. Personally, I really, really
(11:02):
understand about the alphabet and a few signs here and there.
Wow. But I'm definitely trying.
Definitely something I need to work on.
Interesting you got to 19 years old and you don't know sign
language. I'm sure my family and I like
made-up signs when I was a kid and I.
Chucking up signs is not learning.
No, no, no. No, no, no, no, no, no.
(11:24):
Thumbs up. Thumbs up pace.
Yeah, but I can. As long as you know the
alphabet, you're pretty much setbecause you can try to just
finger spell. Oh, OK.
Yeah, it just takes a lot longer.
Yeah, sometimes people will be signing at me and I like, I know
bits and pieces. Yeah, and I'm definitely picking
them. Every camp I go to.
I learn more things and we normally try and do in the
(11:44):
evening, we do activities normally around sign language.
So we're playing a game similar to telephone when we're in camp
Lost. So the person at the front
receives what the word was. Yeah.
So it might have been, I think one of them was like chocolate
cake. And then we had to go down the
line and sign what it was. And then the person at the other
(12:07):
end had to run up to the person that was running the activity
and tell them what the word was and sign to them what the word
was. That's.
Like the old Chinese whispers, but I don't think we'd call it
Chinese whispers anymore. Yeah, but but the deaf version
where you're signing it, Yeah. In a sense along the line, kind
of like Captain Ball telephone. What's the Pictionary first
(12:28):
sign? Oh, no, people wouldn't want you
on their team. No idea what they're doing.
Yeah, the. Chocolate cake 1 was definitely
interesting. Yeah, but.
Do you even know what that is like?
How to how to sign it? Chocolate cake.
Chocolate cake? No, still.
So many people in the team don'tknow how to sign either.
It's only like. I was going to say, are you the
(12:50):
only one? So we all rely on our devices.
Like it's different nowadays andhas been for a while because you
said you got that when you were.Eight, yes, have have had
revision surgery because I splitthe scar over from the chase.
Mum was definitely happy about that.
Yeah. How'd you do it?
Luna Park, Yeah, I just run a roller coaster.
I didn't watch the ride before. I went on it and I shook you
(13:11):
side to side and had those hard plastic things on the side.
I just whacked my head on it, slipped my head open.
Cochlear went flying. Yeah.
Cochlear. Is sorry, Baja mine's actually a
Baja cochlear. It's kind of the same thing, but
it's sits on the top of your earfrom what I understand and I
don't really it's. More like just not going to
hearing aid isn't it? You can just take it off.
Yeah, but it doesn't go in the ear.
(13:32):
It just sits on top of the ear and there's like a little wire
and a magnet goes onto the. Amazing.
But the Baja, is that what it's called?
Yep. So I think mine's technically
called a bahar attract, but I just call it a cochlear and
that's. Actually drilled into your
skull. So there's a magnet on my skull,
and then the actual device has amagnet on the outside of it as
(13:53):
well. But the.
Oh, wow. OK, you've just taken it off.
Yeah. How's the one stuck to your
skull? It's a it's a magnet, so it's a
magnet on a magnet. Yeah, but the magnet bit on your
skull has to be permanently on your skull somehow, yeah.
I'm pretty sure it's. I'm assuming it's.
True, you don't even. Know how it's just.
You haven't even questioned how this thing is stuck to your
(14:14):
head. Got no idea.
Have you ever stuck other thingsto it?
Yeah, paper clips, magnets, and it's my favorite party trick.
Yep, you're gonna have fun with it sticking things.
Up on the side. Free people out.
To the magnet on your head. Family gatherings, People forget
that you have it. Yeah.
Oh my God. And somebody's stuck on my head
(14:35):
now it's. You're fine, Yes, using your
head as well. Even like the Magsafe stuff?
Yeah, I've actually tried. I should try that later.
Stop it. I don't think it's strong
enough. So when you.
We're completely caught on a tangent.
This is always gonna happen. Yeah, because I have so many
questions. Yeah.
Have you been to Guandalin Bowling Club?
(14:56):
They're right there on the shores of Lake Macquarie.
They do delicious meals upstairsin the Four Shore Bistro and
Cafe, which is run by the Dish Catering Group.
So, you know, it's good stuff and you can dine out on the
balcony looking out over the lake.
It is beautiful. We got the cute little 4 shore
kiosk for a coffee and snacks right by the jetty.
(15:17):
The entertainment's top notch. They got Friday night seafood
raffles and Sunday sessions withlive music in the beer garden.
You wanna find out what's happening at the club?
Check out their Facebook page orvisit gwandalenbowlingclub.com.
dot AU. King Kumper, Mighta Chan have
been big supporters of the Pod Dan podcast right from the
start. And you get all the stuff from
them that you'd expect to. You get plans, you get all the
(15:39):
Weber stuff, you get all the steel gear, the amazing
principal kitchens, but it's thestuff that you don't expect.
Like we had an elderly lady comeinto the store and she brought
her remote control from her television and she didn't know
how to get it to work. And we opened it up and saw that
she just needed new batteries. And then she told me that her
husband had recently passed away, so he was the one that did
(16:02):
all that stuff for her and she didn't have anybody around to do
that, so she needed us. So we took batteries out of the
packet and put them in the remote and we helped her out and
made her day. That's what she got.
And the mighty helpful King Campbell Minor Gen. with Rabbit.
When you're actually playing in the game, then it's flags.
(16:24):
So, yeah, so the linesman in typical football have flags, but
the central ref in deaf footballalso has a flag as well as a
whistle. Yeah.
So if there's a foul or an off site or something like that,
everyone just kind of has to wait for the play to stop, so
people would just be running. I just thought of a dirty move
(16:46):
that you could do in deaf football.
Someone's coming towards you andyou just point back behind them
like. They're telling them.
Someone's raised a flag and thenyou with the ball go really and
look back. Nah.
Nah. Psych.
That's oh, that's that's up until my.
Reptile not in the spirit of thegame.
There would have to be somethingin the rules about someone
(17:07):
calling a fake. There's a flag up behind you.
I have to ask for photos about that one.
Yeah, got me thinking now. Oh really?
Can I use that to my advantage? I.
Really think that's not in the spirit of the game, because I
would think that the I don't. Know a lot of stuff happens.
It's not in the spirit of the game.
Yeah, that's for real. Is there the same amount of
diving in their football as there is?
(17:28):
I mean, sorry. Thanks for watching the Men's
Alliance. Really.
Yeah, more in the men's. What's the A league?
Yeah. What's the A men's football?
I find that so funny man. When, and I'm talking about the
ones where when they go to the replay and then they show it in
slow motion and there's absolutely zero contact, not
even near, and the person goes flying and then they are in the
(17:49):
most excruciating pain ever until the penalty's not given or
whatever and then they get up and.
Just play on it. It's funny when they're rolling
around holding one knee and thenall of a sudden they switch to
the other knee. If you're getting a console, how
is it? Not embarrassing to you as a
player. I understand you're trying to
get the penalty and you're trying to get the foul and be
able to have the goal scoring opportunity come on.
(18:09):
OK, I've never really thought about it like that.
Like as in actually it's part ofthe game to get your team the
penalty. Gotta be able to get the
advantage. Take it and also depends on the
team reversing and the ref you have as well.
Other rest would just play advantage, Other rest would just
tell you to pull your head in and get on with the game.
That's funny. And some other words.
What are some of the biggest challenges with playing deaf
(18:31):
football? When you're actually playing the
game, it's probably trying to communicate with your teammates.
So it's obviously a lot of visual communication, body
language, so obviously sign language.
But when you're on the other side of the field to your team
mate. Sign language as you're playing.
Yeah, that would. Be more like before a play or
(18:54):
something when a not on the run.You can't throw signs on the
run. What our team does is we make up
our own signs. So in case I'm assuming, I don't
really know it to be 100%, but I'm assuming it's so if the
other team happens to know some Oslin, yeah, they can't really
know. That's fine.
I think that's exactly the same as like rugby union, your line
out calls. I've got.
(19:16):
You've got calls. It might be 4-7 chocolate cake.
Yeah, and that means it's going to the fifth player back and
then it goes on to. You've got your plays.
In most sports, this is yours isbeing done with your own version
of sign language. Of course the problem is someone
signs chocolate cake to you and you I have no idea what that
means. I love that chocolate cake just
(19:36):
become the. Thing I know that's the thing
I'm. You're gonna get a piece of
chocolate cake light off from. I really want some chocolate
cake now anyway. All right, so you've got
obviously the fact that you. Yeah, the communication is hard
when you're playing. What else is it?
Silent out on the field, as in no one's yelling to each other.
So I mean, calling for the ball,I, for one, definitely still
(19:57):
scream at the top of my lungs for the ball.
Yeah. But you do get players that are
completely silent. You get some players that are
like completely deaf, can't hearanything.
They'll make noises like grunts or screams and not realize
they're making those noises, if that makes sense.
Yeah, totally. Yeah, obviously I language
pointing some of our signs is like a bounce pass.
(20:19):
Oh, yeah. But on the run though.
So on the run, you do that, Yeah.
Which if you that are just listening to this, it's like
banging your two index fingers together.
Yeah. And that's.
Like a triangle sort of bounce. So you make eye contact, you do
that and then it's also. Just a lot of team chemistry and
being able to know how your teamoperates, how your team works.
(20:41):
But then when you're only reallytraining for three days every
three months, that team chemistry can be a bit.
Yeah. And it can't be any more than
that because there's no funding,is there?
Deaf Football Australia themselves do get some support
from the Shed Foundation, but all our international travel,
(21:03):
the players themselves paying togo to camps, travel,
accommodation, meals, all that sort of stuff is out of our own
pocket. So Shed Foundation and some of
our other sponsors do subsidizedit, but it's still, for example,
a camp in Canberra, excluding fuel for travel, be about $600
in three days. Yeah, Japan looking to be around
(21:27):
roughly 10 grand out of profit. So how do you come up with that
money? I've got a Raisley page running,
which is kind of like a GoFundMe.
Oh yeah, it's a lot of work. And then trying to balance
medical appointments, uni work, training.
Yeah, yeah. How does it work with mum and
Dad and all of that stuff? Are they driving you down?
So yeah, they normally come to Canberra because why not?
(21:49):
Yeah, it's also quite a decent drive if you drive.
I can, I just haven't done my pace test.
Yeah, but I've booked it in. I've booked it in.
Yeah, are. There any restrictions with you
as far as driving goes? Anyone deaf?
There are restrictions. That's a good question.
When you don't know. When I don't know because I
don't really have to worry aboutit.
Yeah, you really, really committed to this whole thing.
(22:10):
No, no, no, no. I really think that it's the
technology that's a. Yeah, it's technology definitely
does help people. Yeah.
Do you? Oh jeez, hang on, the mayor's
just walking past. I'll just get a minute for one
second. The mayor, Laurie, Hello.
Good day, Laurie, good mate. How you?
Going good bend my. Knees globber then, then you've
(22:33):
got it done. Watch your head better up coming
through the door mate. How are you, mate?
Good to see you. This is Michaela.
She's 19. She's from Woy.
Woy. And she's off to the Deaf
Olympics in Tokyo. All right, Yeah.
Plays for the Australian deaf women's soccer team.
Man was fun. Oh, of course.
Yep. Hopefully the women's do all
this year. They're.
Just appointed the court. Yeah.
(22:54):
But I think they're losing quitea few players.
Yeah, left Taylor Ray, Left. I have a feeling Easy Joe
Manners will be leaving. Yeah, hopefully not.
Where are you with the Mariners now?
The person who's waiting to takeover the club from Charles, who
have brought him to the table. Yeah, because they don't
apparently have an owner, do they?
No. Oh, they've got the old one.
He wants out. So if he if he comes in, it
(23:16):
looks like he'll come in. He'll come in and some.
Yeah. Keep being the mayor and then
yeah, so I'll not be a full timegiggle.
Right. Oh, he'll all chip in and buy
it. Yeah, just.
It's a couple that's. Fine.
It's the ongoing wars. He's last.
Yeah. Yeah, he's.
Like the lowest funded club in the A league?
(23:36):
Well, Western United's not even a club anymore are they?
Are they born out OK? A good look the nails by gosh
take. Your seat, he's just do you want
to jump in for a? Jump in my knees have to I've
been down here. I've told the messy for home and
half playing it which is warmer.All right.
And then both knees. No, it's not a comfortable
position to be standing there. It was lovely to meet you.
(23:58):
All right, fair on, mate. See you.
See you. Right.
Did you go for a swim this morning?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is like the 1800s.
Yeah. I'm sitting down here at the
beach having a chat to the mayorwhile the town crier is.
I'll pass this chaos. How are you?
Bye. Absolutely chaos.
I love it. Well, there's you, just chatting
to the man. Brain, Yeah.
Ex Mariners coach I. Thought I recognized.
(24:20):
I was gonna say it at the time, and then I thought, oh, I don't
know. Yeah.
So that's Laurie McKenna. Damn, I should have said
something. It's all right, we got the
introduction done and. Put in a good one.
You know, with those kind of things and people like Laurie,
it's a matter of being on the radar, you know, and he knows so
many people and you just never know where that can lead, where
someone may be looking to support someone.
(24:43):
Do something around football andhe'd get, you know what?
There's a girl I heard about who's going to be going off and
doing this thing. You never know.
You just never know because that's your big thing right now,
right, is the fundraising you'vegot to get.
I saw it as $12,000 and that's to get you to Tokyo, to the
opening ceremony, to all the events, all all the stuff that
you're doing around it. I can use that funding for gym
(25:03):
memberships because currently I'm not a member of a gym.
I've just been doing my own thing.
Yeah. So that'll definitely help me
become a better player and then I can put that money towards
future camps. Trouble to and from Canberra
because it feels so expensive. This is good I hope we're going
to find some people through thisthat are going to be able to
(25:24):
help you out How cool that rightso how this all came about pure
plan management who I recorded an episode with and they work in
the NDIS space and they know of you through.
Limitless ability, yeah, is how we're connected.
I'm connected to pure plan management, right?
And then Coast Abilities also sponsoring.
Me and both of those are sponsoring you, yes, and helping
(25:44):
you out. But limitless ability is who is
connected as a pure play management.
And MB from Pure Plan, she reached out to me and she had
paid for an ad essentially that I was going to be making for
their business and we hadn't started on it yet.
And she went, hey, can I donate that to someone else?
I was like, sure, that's different.
I've never had that before. And she told me about you and
(26:05):
she said is there a way of usingthat time that we have purchased
to promote what Michaela's doingand hopefully get some?
Amazing. Yeah.
I'm so thankful for my support worker through Limitless Ability
is friends with her right and has worked with her in the past.
I hope through this that you're going to get more support to
help you in your fundraising. How do people find it?
(26:27):
I mean, I'll put a link here in my show notes of this.
Follow me on Instagram Michaela dot magro one on Instagram.
I'll give you the link for that.Michaela spoke funky as well.
Is it? MIKAELA and.
That's about it. People do MAKAYLA, there's a lot
of different. No, I'm a MIKAELA, yeah.
(26:48):
Yeah, cool. In my brain.
Awesome. Yeah, sounds good to me.
Then again, that's in my brain. So yeah, it probably is weird
then. I mean, I've grown up listening
to on the radio, so probably whymy brain's stop.
It. Yeah, I never even know.
I don't know you. Used to come to like when I was
in primary school, you come to like the morning breakfast
things. Which school?
I was at St. John's and then I was at
(27:09):
Chertsey, but I don't think he went to the church.
Right. He would go and do the broadcast
for the Breaky show from the primary school.
It was fun. We love those things, Yeah.
Grow up and listen to you on thecar troops.
It's pretty cool. Cool.
And now fan going a little bit. Now you're still fan going a
little bit. Now you are part of it which is
awesome. Hey thanks heaps for jumping in.
I've really enjoyed the chat. I've learnt stacks more about
(27:31):
this and I'm sure everyone else has as well.
And the links are in the show notes and also on pod band
socials as well so you can get behind Michaela and help her get
across to Tokyo. Good luck for November.
Thank you so much, I really appreciate it.
Podcast with Rabbit.
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