‘The body is an idiot’ says Kurt

Gold-winning Paralympian Kurt Fearnley spoke last week at a business breakfast organised by the Potts Point and Kings Cross Business Partnership.  He showed footage of his crossing of the Kokoda Track, in which he had to rely on his two strong arms to crawl most of the way.

“It was the hardest thing I have ever done,” he said.

He described how his family had ‘thrown him in at the deep end’ while caring for a child born with the lower part of his spine missing.

“When I was three years old we would go for walks on our country property,” he said, “and I would just have to follow as best I could.”

“When we came to a barbed wire fence I would have to find my own way over, and when we came to a river, to me it was like crossing the Indian Ocean.”

His parents insisted on enrolling him in the local public school, rejecting special education opportunities. At 17 he suffered a car crash which broke his sternum and one leg, leaving him convalescent for two years. But this man, soon to be married, is a tough one.

“The body is an absolute idiot – it will do anything you tell it to if you shout loud enough,” he grinned.

Local Member Malcolm Turnbull showed up. He was reportedly taken slightly aback when introduced to one of his table mates, Fiona Patten from the Australian Sex Party. But he was perfectly at ease getting down to floor level for an eye-to-eye chat with Mr Fearnley afterwards.

by Michael Gormly