LOCAL LIFE
BLACKTOWN ’ S FINEST ... Corinna , David
Mia came up with the idea to fundraise through donations of cans to recycle . by Lorna Gordon
David and Corinna Snook are like many other families in Blacktown , hardworking family orientated people who enjoy the life they have built for themselves . They moved to Riverstone in their 20s and liked it so much they put roots down there with their daughter , Mia who is 11 .
David works in construction and Corinna was a nurse , working at Westmead hospital . They had just had Mia and Corinna was getting ready to go back to work near the end of her maternity leave when she began having discomfort in her leg . It was so bad that it started to wake her up in the night , so she saw her GP , expecting the aches were her body recovering from having a baby , but they turned out to be something else entirely .
“ I assumed it was from having a baby and being tired . I mentioned the pains to my doctor , who decided we should do an x-ray and have a look . The x-ray found a bone tumour , which was not what any of us was expecting .”
The tumour turned out to be a giant cell tumour , and while it wasn ’ t cancerous , it was painful and would damage the surrounding tissues causing Corinna to have limited movement - treatment was definitely needed . Over the course of eight years , she undertook thirty surgeries and was constantly in and out of hospital . After Corinna and her medical team had tried everything with little improvement , it was time to make a decision on how to proceed .
“ From the diagnosis I had thirty operations , over a period of eight years and spent over three years in hospital missing time with Mia and David . By 2019 my leg was not functioning and the only thing they could do was amputate .”
While this might seem an extreme course of action , Corinna said all the attempts to get rid of the tumour had led to this and it was the next logical step . Instead of letting it get her down she decided to write a bucket list of things to do before the amputation and one of those was pole dancing .
This strenuous exercise has come a long way from it ’ s origins in clubs and Corinna was instantly hooked by the sport , doing a term before she had her operation . Once she was feeling better and had physically recovered , Lyndal from Pole Plus , the studio she had taken classes at , got in touch .
“ After the amputation Lyndal told me to come back . It was just the two of us ,
6 ISSUE 42 // SEPTEMBER 2024 theindependentmagazine . com . au BLACKTOWN CITY INDEPENDENT