Six Star Magazine Six Star Magazine Winter 2011/2012 | Page 34

FEATURE
Helping to find her place to shine

play a dominant role,” says Stephanie. “It was

discovered her passion for sport. She took

Already the parents of a healthy young

never an excuse.” Stephanie was fitted for her

swimming lessons until she was 13 and then,

toddler, Stephanie Dixon’s parents had no

first prosthetic leg at 11 months. She began

to challenge herself further, joined a local

idea, 27 years ago, when they were awaiting

swimming when she was two. Her parents

competitive swim club.

the birth of their daughter, that she would

also helped her become involved in baseball,

be born missing a leg and a hip and with

gymnastics, diving, skiing and horseback

Stephanie’s disability never bothered her, the

internal organs displaced outside of her body.

riding. “They wanted me to try as many things

truth is that there were times in her life when it

Immediately whisked by helicopter to The

as possible to help grow my confidence in the

did. “I never even considered myself disabled

Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, doctors

fact that my disability was not a barrier,” says

because I could always do everything I put my

were able to shift organs to where they were

Stephanie. “It helped too that I had an older

mind to,” she says, but that does not mean she

supposed to be but, of course, the missing

brother to look up to. I wanted to do everything

was not aware of her differences. “Some kids

leg was not something that could be

he did.” Her family was also very careful to not

are self-conscious about acne or clothes; for me,

surgically “fixed.”

coddle her and instead let her figure things out

starting in about grade seven, it was my leg.”

Great parents will help their children find

on her own. Riding a two-wheel bicycle was

While it would be lovely to say that

While she was swimming competitively with

their place to shine. Stephanie Dixon has

certainly a challenge, but her parents refused to

her swim club, and even representing Canada

great parents. “They made a conscious effort

create the answer for her.

at international meets, she did not join her

to raise me in a way that my disability did not

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It was in the water, though, that Stephanie

own high school’s swim team. “I was used to