Diehard Richmond supporter, Margaret Shanahan was born blind. It’s a genetic condition that also affected her mother, one of her sisters and a niece. As Margaret describes, it’s all she knows, and it’s had a profound impact on her physical and mental wellbeing.
“It’s by no means easy, I can tell you that”, says Margaret. “I’ve had many years of struggle through not being able to get out and do things. It’s hard to find physical activity that you can do confidently, and feel that you’re good at doing it.”
Forced to sit on the sidelines or participate in solitary, or mostly less active sports during secondary school, Margaret’s confidence never flourished and poor habits formed.
“You know you want to do something; you try. But for me, it was a big mental battle. The more you don’t do, the more you think you can’t do,” she says.
“When I first started to think about going to the gym I thought, you know, I’m going to turn up at this gym. I was so overweight, I was a bit embarrassed about the idea. I think for me, you don’t know when people are looking at you. Now some people might think that’s a good thing, but for me, I’ve always actually been the opposite and sort of feared that people are looking at me and judging me. I may be in a room of one hundred people and nobody is looking at me, but I can convince myself that I’m being judged or looked at and it was a big struggle to get to the point of going 'ok, you know what, the only way my physical and mental health is going to improve, is if I do something about it myself'.”
Margaret found Swish - vision impaired table tennis - as a recreational and social outlet three years ago. Developed in Australia by blind people, the sport uses a bigger ball with metal objects inside that make a noise. This allows players to follow the path of the ball using their hearing.
“I’ve enjoyed that (Swish), but in recent times, mostly due to the fact that the NDIS is now available and can support me financially in my endeavours to go to the gym, I have joined a gym and I’m finding that it’s really helped me a lot in my mental health, as well as starting to have an effect on my physically health.
"I think going to the gym, in particular, makes you feel as though you’re achieving. You feel as if you're getting your self-worth back. Losing a bit of weight also helps and I’ve got a lot to go, I realise that, but I know that I’m on the way and it makes you feel better about yourself.
"Really the only person in this world that’s got to be happy with me is me. I don’t have to live up to anyone else’s standards. We probably all have a strength in us that we don’t often recognise in ourselves, and it’s about coming to terms with the fact that we are strong and we can do what we want to do, and we can be proud of who you are and what you can do.
"So, this girl can lift herself out of her physical and mental depression and move on and improve, and be healthy and live a happy life, here on in.”
To find our more about VicHealth’s This Girl Can VIC program, go to www.thisgirlcan.com.au and Richmond’s Aligned Leisure centres across Victoria www.alignedleisure.com.au
Richmond Football Club is a proud partner of VicHealth’s This Girl Can Victoria campaign, celebrating women who are all kinds of active. Women who are giving it their all, or giving it a go, but not giving a damn!
