International Paralympic icon inspires students
2 March 2011
No limits ... Rick Hansen with SEAT presenters at Brisbane State High School
Brisbane State High School was the venue when Canada's "Man in Motion", Paralympian Rick Hansen, addressed a Spinal Cord Injury Education Forum for Young People.
More than 200 students from seven high schools were encouraged by Mr Hansen and presenters from the Spinal Injuries Association's Spinal Education Awareness Team (SEAT) to become ambassadors for spinal cord injury awareness and prevention.
Mr Hansen takes his title from his 1985 Man In Motion World Tour, when he wheeled more than 40,000 kilometres through 34 countries to increase awareness about the potential of people with disabilities and raised $26 million for spinal cord injury research.
Brisbane State High School acting principal Mark Law said Mr Hansen's message to students at the forum was both inspirational and sobering.
'The students were so focused on what Rick and the two SEAT members had to say. Whilst it was entertaining, it also brought home to them how spinal injuries can so easily happen sometimes from a moment of silliness, but sometimes just from bad luck,' he said.
'They understood that it was a split second thing that you can't prepare for, that you can't see coming and that has permanent results for themselves, their friends and their families.
'They understand that as much as they feel it, they are not bulletproof. For most of them it was the first time they had met people with spinal injuries and were very interested in how they had adjusted their lives.
'They also saw and could jump on the motivation that Rick was spreading, that life was not about what limitations you have but about the possibilities.'
Mr Hansen visited Australia to celebrate the 25th anniversary of his Man In Motion World Tour and further his international spinal cord injury registry which Premier Bligh signed up to last year, putting Brisbane on the map with cities in Canada, the United States and Israel.
For more information, visit www.rickhansen.com.
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