wheelchair for my health,
Donation protected
Hi,
I am Zac Schumacher and I am 24 years old and live in Townsville, North Queensland, Australia. I have a wife and two kids aged 9 and 3. As of May 2016 I will be unemployed due to my ongoing medical problems. My story is not short, however the short version is as follows:
In april 2009 I joined the Australian Regular Army.
In 2011 I dislocated my right hip paying sport.
Since then, I have had to have 10 operations including a partial hip replacement in late 2014 and approximitally 12 months later a total hip replacement in November 2015.
As you can imagine, having 10 operations and significantly lengthy recovery periods over the course of 4 years has dramatically affected not only my physical health but my mental health as well. My most significant problems to date are now my mental health and chronic hip, leg and back pain that have come about due to the lengthy and invasive treatments and recovery from my hip injury. I have already this year undergone diagnosic surgery for my chronic pain and further surgeries are scheduled and and being considered in hopes of getting my life back.
My injury and now my persistant chronic pain and mental health problems hasn't just affected me, it has impacted greatly on my wife and kids, my extended family, my work and my social life. Spending significant time in recovery or pain, my wife has spent a great deal of time being not only Mum and Dad but my carer. I am not able to engage with my children in a physical activity sense and my ability to attened activities and outings with them has at times been impossible. For me, this is the ultimeate kick in the guts, feeling like I am letting my children down and with no clear end to this in sight. As I mentioned prior, I will be loosing my employment in May of this year due to being unable to perform my required work duties. My "now" abilities and future surgeries will dramatically limit future work roles I am able to undertake.
After my total hipreplacement in 2015, I gained 30kgs in 2 months! As you can imagine, not only did it make me feel worse mentally but the implications to my physical self was huge not to mention detrimental. The more weight I carry, the more strain is placed on my hip, my legs and my back, the slower and less mobile I am and the longer my recovery takes. In 2015, a silver lining to my now disability presented itself. I was introduced to wheelchair basketball, a sport I never knew existed locally. Wheelchair basketball has been a god send (and I am not a religious man). My passion for sport (which I had played representivley only a few years earlier), which had been as good as crushed when I injured myself back in 2011, came alive in me again. It was something I could do, that I enjoyed, that I was good at, that didn't discriminate. I started training every week with Townsville's wheelchair basketbal team, I even competed in a small scale competition just months after joining.
Being involved in wheelchair basketball has changed my life. I train twice a week and have several wheelchair basketball competitions coming up this year. I now a participant in Townsville Park Run every Saturday in a wheelchair which I borrow. There is an article about this at the following link: http://www.parkrun.com.au/news/
I am a volunteer at Sporting Wheelies and Disabled Association and am looking into doing a hand cycle ride in Mackays river2reef charity bike ride where the distance options are 35,60,90 and 135 kilometres to help give back and raise funds for a great organisation that has helped me through the darkest time in my life.
I have started this Go Fund me account in hopes of raising enough money to purchase my own wheelchair, which will be custom built to my requirements. Whilst borrowing a chair is great, a one size fits all chair doesn't suit everyone.
The funds are required by may there will then be a chair available in Townsville for someone else to come and play wheelchair basketball. Something I hope will helps others as much as it has helped me.
The cost of the sports wheelchair is $7884. I am not one who likes to ask for help or money, but funding a chair for myself is something myself and my family cannot afford to do alone. I will be forever grateful if I can raise enough money to get a chair to continue my sporting passion and goals.
I would like to thank you for reading this and thank you for your support.
Zac.
I am Zac Schumacher and I am 24 years old and live in Townsville, North Queensland, Australia. I have a wife and two kids aged 9 and 3. As of May 2016 I will be unemployed due to my ongoing medical problems. My story is not short, however the short version is as follows:
In april 2009 I joined the Australian Regular Army.
In 2011 I dislocated my right hip paying sport.
Since then, I have had to have 10 operations including a partial hip replacement in late 2014 and approximitally 12 months later a total hip replacement in November 2015.
As you can imagine, having 10 operations and significantly lengthy recovery periods over the course of 4 years has dramatically affected not only my physical health but my mental health as well. My most significant problems to date are now my mental health and chronic hip, leg and back pain that have come about due to the lengthy and invasive treatments and recovery from my hip injury. I have already this year undergone diagnosic surgery for my chronic pain and further surgeries are scheduled and and being considered in hopes of getting my life back.
My injury and now my persistant chronic pain and mental health problems hasn't just affected me, it has impacted greatly on my wife and kids, my extended family, my work and my social life. Spending significant time in recovery or pain, my wife has spent a great deal of time being not only Mum and Dad but my carer. I am not able to engage with my children in a physical activity sense and my ability to attened activities and outings with them has at times been impossible. For me, this is the ultimeate kick in the guts, feeling like I am letting my children down and with no clear end to this in sight. As I mentioned prior, I will be loosing my employment in May of this year due to being unable to perform my required work duties. My "now" abilities and future surgeries will dramatically limit future work roles I am able to undertake.
After my total hipreplacement in 2015, I gained 30kgs in 2 months! As you can imagine, not only did it make me feel worse mentally but the implications to my physical self was huge not to mention detrimental. The more weight I carry, the more strain is placed on my hip, my legs and my back, the slower and less mobile I am and the longer my recovery takes. In 2015, a silver lining to my now disability presented itself. I was introduced to wheelchair basketball, a sport I never knew existed locally. Wheelchair basketball has been a god send (and I am not a religious man). My passion for sport (which I had played representivley only a few years earlier), which had been as good as crushed when I injured myself back in 2011, came alive in me again. It was something I could do, that I enjoyed, that I was good at, that didn't discriminate. I started training every week with Townsville's wheelchair basketbal team, I even competed in a small scale competition just months after joining.
Being involved in wheelchair basketball has changed my life. I train twice a week and have several wheelchair basketball competitions coming up this year. I now a participant in Townsville Park Run every Saturday in a wheelchair which I borrow. There is an article about this at the following link: http://www.parkrun.com.au/news/
I am a volunteer at Sporting Wheelies and Disabled Association and am looking into doing a hand cycle ride in Mackays river2reef charity bike ride where the distance options are 35,60,90 and 135 kilometres to help give back and raise funds for a great organisation that has helped me through the darkest time in my life.
I have started this Go Fund me account in hopes of raising enough money to purchase my own wheelchair, which will be custom built to my requirements. Whilst borrowing a chair is great, a one size fits all chair doesn't suit everyone.
The funds are required by may there will then be a chair available in Townsville for someone else to come and play wheelchair basketball. Something I hope will helps others as much as it has helped me.
The cost of the sports wheelchair is $7884. I am not one who likes to ask for help or money, but funding a chair for myself is something myself and my family cannot afford to do alone. I will be forever grateful if I can raise enough money to get a chair to continue my sporting passion and goals.
I would like to thank you for reading this and thank you for your support.
Zac.
Organizer
Zac Schumacher
Organizer
Sanson