Stories - July 10, 2023
Making a Mark on sport
When it comes to establishing networks and meeting new mates Mark Mulcahy reckons you can’t go past any sporting opportunity to break down barriers.
The now Numurkah local just loves sport. He plays, has been an administrator, and has also umpired. He believes it is the sporting connection that makes communities and just a great way to get involved.
Mark damaged his left leg in a workplace accident in 2014, and 5 years later needed an amputation below the knee. Mark looks back at the struggles over that time:12 operations, daily life coming to a slowing grind, and sport out of the question.
Post-operation Mark embraced being relatively free of pain and then looking towards the thing he loved most – that competitive spirit of the sporting arena.
The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and partner in the community Intereach have supported Mark to make moving around his home easier with an updated bathroom and yard works which, included levelling some bumpy surfaces, allowing him to have greater mobility. Mark’s bathroom has been modified from a shower over a bath, to a new accessible shower and
accessible toilet with rails, funded through his NDIS plan.
“It has been wonderful; it has made life so much easier … and it hasn’t stopped me singing in the shower – its great!” “In fact, I reckon I sing more? We are the Champions, I love it.”
Mark
The song is apt considering Mark’s love of sport. He has taken up wheelchair basketball in Shepparton and is looking to expand his sporting prowess into other wheelchair sports. In the past Mark has won a premiership with Collingwood in the first season of the wheelchair AFL in Melbourne and now wants to explore wheelchair rugby.
He is a die-hard North Melbourne fan in the AFL, loves the Melbourne Storm (he even has a prosthetic leg with the Storm logo on it) in the NRL and has cricket running through his veins in summer.
“When I lost my leg and I was still living in Melbourne, I umpired cricket as an amputee, but time has caught up and I can’t stand for 6 hours anymore, so I thought let’s get back into the competitive stuff,” Mark said.
Mark has welcomed his association with Intereach highlighting the support he has received in the sometimes-complex spaces of the NDIS.
“I can call Intereach and they can tell me in laymans terms what a contract or a change means, that’s what I like. I have had wonderful support, it’s a service we can’t afford to lose,” Mark said.
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