Para Olympic Athlete Amy Dixon
Amy Dixon and Mary Winter, both speakers at last Saturday’s event, lost their sight as adults; one from a rare degenerative disease and the other a result of complications of due to neck surgery for a back injury.
Amy Dixon began losing her sight as a young pharmacy student with no health insurance, initially ignoring the symptoms she was experiencing. Working as a server, she found herself bumping into tables, missing wine glasses and running into tables. By the time she sought medical help, her eye loss was irreversible.
Depressed and overweight from the medical treatment to help her retain what little vision she had left, Amy found solace in a local pool where she could, as she explained, “feel like myself again.” A pool after all, provided a stable environment for her to work out safely as she negotiated the disorientation of vision loss.
Passionate Athlete
Amy, a former athlete, ballooned up to a size 14 from her treatment. Embarrassed of her weight gain, she would sneak into the vacant spin room at her local gym and ride in the dark by herself. Soon, she found someone to run with her and it wasn’t long before Amy’s friend suggested that since she was running, biking and swimming, she do a triathalon. Her response: “What? Are you crazy? Blind people don’t do triathalons!” But as we found out, they do.
Amy, now 40 (and a size 2) has trained hard to qualify for the Para Olympics in Rio De Janiero that will take place in September. Her advice to those of us who were lucky enough to hear her speak was “Control the controllables.”
Control the “Controllables.”
“Control what you can control in your life- like what you put into your body, how you move, what you are thinking. Don’t focus on what you cannot.
I know it sounds nuts but I really think getting this diagnosis has been a blessing. I think I was pretty selfish and self absorbed back then and if it hadn’t happened, I wouldn’t be as strong as I am today or learned the lessons I have as a result.”
Amy’s feisty sense of humor, honesty and dedication to excellence was inspiring and moving.
We filmed Amy’s awesome talk (She needs to do a TED Talk if she hasn’t already!), but somehow the mic got turned off in her jeans pocket so we (sadly_, did not get the audio! There’s only one solution! Amy, you will have to come back and tell us more about competing in the Para Olympics!
Luckily I did find this youtube video so that you can get a chance to hear more from Amy anyway!
To access Amy’s website, go to www.amydixonusa.c0m Find out more about the Para Olympics by clicking here.
“My life changed in an instant.”
Mary Winter and Tara, her companion
Mary Winter, our second presenter, injured her back while trying to rescue another person from a fall. An avid athlete, swim coach and Program Director, Mary underwent neck surgery to help her near constant pain.
As she describes it, “I went into surgery one day, and woke up the next day with a totally different life.” As a result of her surgery, Mary woke up not only blind but a quadrapeligic, as well. She was not only not able to see, but not able to move any of her limbs!
Her journey to recovery is not only miraculous, but an awesome reminder for each of us to be present in our lives each day.
Never give up
Like Amy, Mary had some words of advice for us. “I learned never to take NO for an answer. I learned the power of having an advocate. I learned I had to sometime push others just to get the help I needed for my recovery. My story is unusual, I guess, but I wasn’t ready to accept this new life.”
Although losing her sight wasn’t her choice, Mary feels it has still been a gift. “When you’re blind you realize just how resilient you are at continuing to adapt and learn. Life has a way of getting very clear, very defined pretty fast. You know that kind of exasperation you get by having the run to the grocery for just two things, or doing the laundry, or whatever… I don’t care about that any of that anymore, it’s simply not important.”
Luckily we were able to get Mary’s talk on film. Like Amy, Mary’s is an amazingly strong, gracious, courageous and funny woman. Take a moment to sit and watch this without distraction, because it’s truly worth your time.
Mary talked to us about United in Stride, an online data base that pairs runners (and walkers) who are blind or visually impaired with sighted guides across North America.
They hope this resource eases the challenge of finding sighted guides close to home, or when traveling to another part of the country for vacation or a race. They believe that a robust, interactive sighted guide database will create more opportunities for the next generation of visually impaired runners and walkers.
If you’d like to learn more about volunteering, click here.
The Children’s Center for the Visually Impaired
Thank you TEAM 1901! You all rock!
Thank you Amy, Mary and our very own Nicola Heskett is who is the Director of the Children’s Center for the Visually Impaired.
The mission of the Children’s Center for the Visually Impaired is to prepare children with visual impairments, including those with multiple disabilities, to reach their highest potential in the sighted world. Amy and Mary were in town to run the Trolley Run, CCVI’s largest yearly fundraiser.
TEAM 1901 showed up to support CCVI on a beautiful Spring morning. Thank you to all who ran, walked or donated money to help Nicola and her team at CCVI do such great work.
To learn more about CCVI and how you can help, click here.
Thank you again Nicola Heskett, Amy Dixon, and Mary Winter for reminding us all of the gift of choice in our every day lives.
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