GregKidd

As we have been editing through Dads belongings we’ve found all sorts of things thought lost to the dusty halls of time.

When I came across an innocuous green envelope, I couldn’t imagine what there would be inside –

It turned out, Dad had the original super 8 style news reel of his first wheelchair being given in 1965 with the original letter and cover note!

Cover note:

FROM NEWS EDITOR
ABC
GPO Box 293E
BRISBANE
PER KIND FAVOUR

MR. KEN NEWTON
ABC NEWS
ROCKHAMPTON

Letter:

COPY
A.B.C. TELEVISION NEWS
7.00 p.m. FRIDAY,
29th- 0ct., 1965.
(THREE IN THE GATE)
Take Opening:
WHEELCHAIR GIFT…..
NHQ.1462/G’MAN BINTLEY/1°E0.
JONES/MOKECHNIE/SWIFT:RAL: KTT.
(ROLL TEN WORDS BACK ON PREVIOUS STORY)
At BRISBANE’S Princess ALEXANDRA Hospital today, an APEX Club gesture put a smile on the face of a young CHARLEVILLE boy. Mr. BILL WYER, Of BRISBANE Apex Club, presented a wheel chair to fifteen years old GREGORY KIDD, on behalf of CHARLEVILLE Apexians.
GREGORY has been bedridden for the last eight months following a tragic swimming accident.
He’s paralysed from the shoulder down.
He was brought to BRISBANE after several months in CHARLEVILLE Hospital.
16 ft –_ 25 secs.

Going back to the draft of his autobiography, I found the relevant section:

“It was S7 policy that all patients had their own wheelchairs. My graduation from Genevieve was to a modern chrome chair donated by the Charleville Apex Club, the presentation of which occurred on 29 October 1965.

Someone considered it newsworthy enough to advise ABC Television’s news department in advance so that it was recorded and played on air. The person who initiated the gift and the Apex Club had played their part.

The broadcaster gained a story that probably pulled a few audience heartstrings. The aunties enjoyed a flash of celebrity before withdrawing. Throughout the presentation, I sat bolt upright then was lifted back
to bed exhausted. After barely one hour!

The photo provided by the ABC depicts Sisters de Klerk (left and Harris (right), and Aunties Norma (left) and Hazel (right) dressed up in hats, gloves and handbags, and myself swathed in a bed sheet.

While being very appreciative of the gift itself, I was not able to push myself in it because, when combined with a right-tilting scoliosis, the upright vinyl sling backrest did not provide enough support. I began sitting slumped, my hips midway on the cushion instead of at the back of it, and with my left arm behind the pushing handle on that side. The slumping concentrated most of my torso weight at a point midway down my back where it rubbed against the top of the backrest.

The friction introduced the cycle of splitting the skin apart; my being confined to bed until it healed; then, upon resuming chair use, having the split re-appear a few days later.

Mr Stenders made me a back brace, a heavy contraption of bars, straps and buckles. It held me securely in place at the back of the wheelchair, but it frequently slipped out of position and rubbed skin from under my arms and atop my hip bones. My refusal to wear it locked patient, orthotist and physio into ongoing conflict.

To break the stalemate I had the Orthotics Department bend the backrest bars slightly backwards so that the chair reclined enough to allow me to sit at the rear of the seat where the weight of my back was spread evenly. The increased angle also made it easier for me to balance; the brace was dispensed with.

To compensate for my loss of finger movement that would have allowed me to grip the pushing rims on the rear wheels, Mr Stenders drilled eight holes in each rim and bolted on rubber knobs.

By pressing the heels of my hands against the knobs, I could propel myself.

I moved at little more than a snail’s pace at first, with only enough stamina to cover a few metres at a time, but the experience was acutely liberating; it provided a level of independence I had not known for 11
months. Eventually, I achieved my goal of pushing myself from my cubicle to the gymnasium, approximately 50 yards (45.72 metres).

The quads were wheeled in a monthly convoy to the sports field on the Boggo Road Prison side and parked in a row so that we could watch the paras play wheelchair basketball and archery. The injustice so incensed me that I usually hid before the patient muster began. The only sport in which I had any interest and ability was table tennis. With a paddle bandaged to my right hand and assistance from an able-bodied ball bouncer for serving, I played skilfully enough to annihilate most of my quadriplegic opponents.

Not very sporting of me!”

We decided to upload the footage to YouTube, I wonder how we see if the national film archives would be interested…