SNN_August 2023 Issue_web3

NEW ZEALAND SPINAL TRUST 26
Ageing Healthily with an SCI
We all feel the effects of time and getting older but how does ageing
impact someone with a spinal cord impairment?
TIME TO REFLECT—Ageing is hard for
everyone, even more so with an SCI.
It is difficult to think about getting old, when
you are still young. The concept is clear, but
until you start to slowly experience the
changes which come with age, it is too hard
to imagine.
Mix in a spinal cord impairment and the consequences of
ageing can be problematic and challenging. You have
already worked incredibly hard to overcome the
challenges you faced with an SCI, and found ways to live
your best life.
You may have raised a family, had a meaningful
vocational role and enjoyed participating in sports, but
now, with ageing, your body is letting you down, again.
How do you face that change? What advice would you
offer to a younger person with an SCI? What would you
have done differently?
To answer some of these questions we talked to Phil
Melrose, founder of Melrose Kiwi Concept Chairs, sports
enthusiast and experiencing the effects of ageing.
Phil sustained his T9 spinal injury on 27th January 1991.
He was off shore power boat racing when the accident
happened. “I thought you just sit in a wheelchair and can’t
move your legs. Well, I was wrong about that,” he says.
“I was lucky to have the best team of nurses and doctors and
people around me. And when I was doing my rehab, playing
basketball, I met a guy from the West Coast … and the rest is
history. We would be swimming, doing yoga, tennis,
basketball, lifting weights and playing table tennis.”
Surround yourself with
people who see you for
who you are.
—Phil Melrose
Phil describes his accomplishments in those early years:
“I used to take the ‘newbies’ up town and show them life
doesn’t change. I learned as much from them as they
learned from me.
“Sports were important, I loved playing tennis and met a
lot of cool friends. I went back to racing speedway for a
few years (and) really enjoyed that. I asked a mate to build
me some frames out of titanium, but after a while he was
too busy building microlite planes. I’d met Mike a few
years before my accident, racing in Te Awamutu.”
Phil decided to build a wheelchair for himself out of
titanium. This was so successful he gradually had more
built as he sold them to friends and acquaintances. His
small part time garage interest has grown to a business
that designs and fabricates custom wheelchairs and
sports chairs as well as other mobility products and
employs around 50 people in NZ and California.
Phil credits his success as a parent in those early years to
Annette and reported that his young daughters adapted
to his mobility needs early on. Having meaningful