Hauraki Plains College’s swimming sports this year featured something a little special, with select students jumping into the pool with one arm tied to their sides.
The unique race was held to honour their peer, Rylee Sayer, who lost her right arm due to cancer in November.
Rylee, 15, is a talented swimmer herself.
Despite being born with a rare genetic condition called Tuberous Sclerosis Complex, she holds S14 para records for swimming and recently travelled to France to swim as part of the New Zealand Virtus Global Games team.
In October last year, she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of bone cancer – an osteosarcoma – in her proximal humerus, which forms the ball of the shoulder’s ‘ball and socket’.
By November, she had to have a forequarter amputation of her right arm, scapula and clavicle.
But the setback hasn’t stopped her from pursuing her love of swimming.
“On December 20, she had her staples out and so she got back into the pool on January 5 to start swimming again,” her mum Amanda told The Profile. “She wants to go to the New Zealand Championships in April; her chemo schedule is allowing it. She has no expectations but she’s very driven to keep going and not let the disability she now has stop her from doing amazing things.”
The Race like Rylee event during Hauraki Plains College’s swimming sports day on February 19 featured five students and one teacher, Mr Dean Wedlake. The competitors had to swim one length of the pool with only one arm in action.
The race was the brainchild of staff member Amanda Fitzpatrick who said she “just wanted the kids to realise how lucky they are to have two arms”.
“Rylee’s attitude is second to none. [She’s] a very inspirational young lady,” she said.
Rylee now attends the Northern Health School but is still on the HPC roll. She trains at the Matamata Swimming Club and is coached by Graeme Laing, the son of the late New Zealand Olympic swimming coach, Duncan Laing.
Mum Amanda said the Race like Rylee event created a great conversation around the struggles people with impairments can face.
“Rylee really wants to be a disability advocate, and what she took out of it was the fact that the [students] could appreciate the struggle she’s been having,” she said.
“Most of the kids who did it had a swimming background, and before the race, they were asking me: ‘how does Rylee dive and how does she do this or do that’. It was done with the utmost respect for Rylee.”
Race winner Matthew Simpson even donated his $50 winnings to Rylee’s ongoing fundraising efforts.
“So many people are frightened by disability because they haven’t experienced it in their lives,” Amanda said, “whereas when we were told Rylee was going to have her amputation, Rylee literally turned around to the surgeon and said: ‘That’s okay, I don’t need two arms to still be the same person’.”
Race like Rylee results: 1st Matthew Simpson; 2nd Rhona McInnes; 3rd Zoe Winter; 4th Georgia McTaggart; 5th Kaia Van Doorn.
DETAILS: To donate to Rylee’s ongoing fundraising efforts, visit: givealittle.co.nz/cause/rainbows-and-pretzels
