MDF Magazine Issue 61 April 2020 (2)

Random gravity checks
She’s a Rock Star
By Andrew Marshall
Hi everyone
The MDF asked me if I wanted to write a column
for this magazine after I wrote and published a
memoir last year, Dissecting wobbles. (Google it.
It’s on Amazon and I’d love for as many people as
possible to read it.)
I’m extremely excited at the opportunity to write for
this magazine. I’ve written a few articles for MDF
before (about a skydive I did raising money for the
MDF, and a few other things) which I really enjoyed.
But here’s the thing, I have no cooking clue what I’m
doing when it comes to this writing stuff! If I hadn’t
met Andrew Miller, my editor (who also has a type
of muscular dystrophy, SMA II – some of you may
remember he wrote an article for the magazine about
his ninja word skills a few years ago), I’d never have
produced the book we created together.
Leila is 16 years old and is a member of my
WhatsApp support group, which means she
shares the same flavour of muscular dystrophy
as mine: Friedreich’s ataxia. She has always inspired
me in a titanic kind of way, and really she’s
someone I strongly feel we all need to meet. The way
Leila lives her life in the face of adversity is quite
incredible. She has an amazing light inside her,
which you can see when she’s smiling and when she
speaks and which just has to be shared. I can’t be
selfish and keep it all to myself. Leila is my hero.
So, I asked her to write a letter, telling us a little
about her and some of the big things happening in
her life, which I’m sure you guys will be interested
in. To start, this is what she has to say about her
new service dog, Sakura.
So, given my often dodgy editorial ability, I thought
to myself: “What the hell am I going to write about?”
But, as it turned out, I didn’t have to worry. In fact,
a young lady actually wrote most of this first column
for me! And yes, I can read some of your thoughts
(particularly if you know me: “It’s always about a girl,
Andy”), but this is definitely not like that.
When I first applied for a service dog they told me
the wait could be one to three years. I was prepared
to wait for however long it took. Then, two
years after I applied, my mom got a call to say that
they had matched me with a dog, but she didn’t
tell me!!! I found out on Christmas eve 2019 and
it was the best Christmas ever. The first week of
training I did at the SA Guide dogs facilities and
then the next two weeks they came to Pretoria
and did literally everything with me. They even sat
through many classes and assembly at Afrikaans
Hoër Meisiesskool Pretoria.
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