“I was shocked - angry, for one. It needs to be law that no dojos discriminate,” says 13-year-old Amy Mombourquette, as she tightens her green belt, and hoists herself up into a chair to learn karate bow moves from her sensei.

“‘She can come, but she won’t be able to do this and she definitely can’t do that,’ they told my daughter, a girl who used to do jazz class routines on the floor with her hands. The first place we went to for karate would not make any attempt to accommodate Amy - the can’t word was there all the time,” says her mother Donna.

Inspired by the movie The Pacifier , Amy says she simply said to herself, “Dude, I so want to do that (karate)!” There was just one problem - the first Brantford martial arts centre or ‘dojo’ she signed up with stuck her in the back of the class and told her she would not be able to perform complete katas, the fighting sequences necessary to gain a belt.

All the dojo was focusing on was the fact that Amy cannot perform any karate kicks because she is a paraplegic. In Friday night’s karate class at her new dojo, D and D United Black Martial Arts on Stanley Street, Amy bowed with her peers to greet her current sensei.

“Amy is the first student I’ve had in a wheelchair, but I have taught the visually impaired, students with autism, mental disabilities, and amputees,” says Bryon Davis, who is also the martial arts coach for Team Canada who makes his students do 25 push-ups if they utter the word ‘can’t’. “Dojos should never discriminate because it does not matter what a person’s age, race, creed, or physical ability is - everyone should have the freedom to try anything. Amy does every karate move, but kicks and she loves it - she’s one of our most positive students.”

Growing pains

Amy’s spine was born in a sac on the outside of her body, a rare ‘defect’ known as spina bifida or split spine known as Myelomeningocele. At just one day old, Amy had surgery to avoid death from spinal infections. As a baby, her first steps were in leg braces, without sustained success. At four months, Amy was swimming with her mom who had taught toddler swimming classes at the YMCA. Now, Donna is a personal support worker, and also helps Amy with transporting from the wheelchair to the pool, for example, not to mention helping her dress in the mornings, and assisting with her catheter and bowel routines.

“Nerves are not attached to her spine, so she has no feeling from the waste down - her legs might as well be spaghetti,” notes Donna. Yet, Amy does stand for an hour or so every day to prevent brittle bones by using a special desk purchased by Brantford’s Catholic school board.

“It’s a chair and desk system that sets things up for her legs to allow her to sit. A bar is then cranked to bring the seat up and bring the desk in towards her to form a standing at desk,” says Donna, noting that Amy’s cool desk will come with her to Grade 9 at Assumption College high school in September.

Before taking a small, yellow, accessible school bus to St. Mary’s, school, Amy says, was “pretty crappy for the vast majority. I transferred because kids were throwing basketballs at me!”

“It got to the point where they were still doing it, even after the students had had a ‘stern talking to’, so she was crying every morning, ‘please don’t make me go there!’” says Donna. Specifically, she says, they were aiming for her shunt or small tubes that run from ventricles in Amy’s brain down the back of her neck to her stomach.

“Everyone produces a pint of water on their brain every day which gets absorbed and distributed to the organs. The shunt self-regulates this brain fluid for Amy. If the basketballs had caused leaks in the shunt chords, the fluid could have built up in her brain causing brain damage.”

Life adapts to Amy

“Most people do treat me differently,” says Amy, “But, I have a great friend named Bobbie-Lynn Scargall who sometimes forgets that I can’t walk, and I like the sense of unity and family at karate.”

To use Amy’s favourite quote: “When life gives you lemons, make grape juice and sit back and watch the world wonder how you did it.”

Donna notes that Amy has always had to figure out ways to do what she wants and can make life adapt to her.

“There will always be times when Amy asks me why she can’t walk like everyone else, but most days she makes life adapt to her dreams. My daughter is a normal teenager who loves to read and hang out with friends, but when it comes to her goals, I say as long as it’s not dangerous for her, let her try - when she wanted to ride a bicycle, we bought a hand pedal attachment for her chair. You would truly be surprised by what someone who is paraplegic can accomplish.”

Aside from being getting her masters in karate to become Brantford’s next sensei, Amy dreams of being a marine biologist. Along with starting to make her dreams come true at D and D and St. Mary’s, Amy says she is making wishes too, and will choose one to request of the local Make a Wish Foundation.

“If there was such thing as Twilight Land, I would totally go there!” says Amy, referring to the best-selling vampire novels. “I would love to spend a day with Hedley or Atreyu and sing a song with them in a recording studio.”

She says her advice to other paraplegics is to “follow your dreams. If you want to do something, do it - nothing should stop you.”

At the end of the day, Amy Mombourquette stands taller than most adults with the strong backbone of her character - loving to live, laugh and learn, all the while inspiring those around her to never say ‘can’t’ to their own challenges.

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