19 Jun CAROLA QUIROZ

HAVING “MARFAN SYNDROME” WAS NO BARRIER TO PRACTICING PARA-KARATE

✳️ This time it is our Chilean friend Carolina, who opens up to tell us a little about her story and her relationship with Para-Karate. It also stresses the need for fears and prejudices to be lost with disability because #karateisforeveryone #parakarateiskarate #karateisparakarate.

THE DOCTORS TOLD ME I WOULDN’T LIVE.

I was born in Chile in 1974 with a rare disease called “Marfan Syndrome”. When I was born, doctors told me I wouldn’t live more than 2 months (at home) and then every year they repeated the same thing to my parents: “It won’t happen this year because of all the complications I have at the musculoskeletal and respiratory level,” they repeated.

I OVERDUCED A COMPLETE SURGERY IN THE COLUMN

At the age of 15 and after total spinal surgery, my parents were told to move to the ICU to say goodbye to me, but I survived…

I have performed other total spine surgeries since the date, I have been evicted several times from my home and I am clear that what moves me is KARATE.

THE ONLY THING THAT MOVES ME IS KARATE AND I DIDN’T ACCEPT THE NEGATIVES OF SEVERAL INTRUDERS

In 1989 I wanted to practice but three different instructors said to me,”No, you can’t.” However, in 1990 Ricardo Bustos Cisternas replied: Why didn’t you?… That’s where I started the practice. I competed in Kata in open tournaments, I taught for 15 years, I was a judge and now I only practice and incentive more instructors to join the teaching of Para-Karate, to share their knowledge with other people with disabilities.

NEEDING MORE AND MORE PARA-KARATE INSTRUCTORS AND PRACTITIONERS

The funny thing is that Karate is a “forbidden sport” for those of us who live with “Marfan”, but doctors have me “forbidden to abandon” the practice for all the benefits it brings me. And I’m happy to keep this prescription. Today one of my doctors still tells me to hug me “you’re still alive”… And my other doctors every 6 months, at every six-monthly check, I’m told… “Stay with Karate, this has made you keep walking and breathing”…

NEEDING MORE AND MORE PARA-KARATE INSTRUCTORS AND PRACTITIONERS

Thank you for making this Karate practice visible to people with disabilities, as many more need to join the practice, but above all Instructors to teach and leave behind the fear and all the prejudices that disabilities entail.***

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