David: good afternoon and welcome to my third podcast interview. Today we have a guest. Albert Leigh is here to explain a little bit about his life, in 1983. Albert had an accident where he had a double amputee after that Albert has gone on to get married. He’s got an optometrist qualification, also Has done a few other things. I’ll let Albert talk to you about them. Tell me about your early life up until you had your accident in 1983? Albert: I was just your normal average kid growing up in Sydney. I did my high school in Sydney and I got the opportunity to go to University of New South Wales and study optometry. It was in the middle of that optometry course that I had a little bit of a misadventure in regards that I had an accident That involved falling out of a train and having the loss of both legs, so it was pretty much in the middle of my third year at university that sort of just disrupted the way that I thought about life and I had a lot of issues with self-image and how to cope with things because at that age I was 20 at 20 you sort of think in the world you’re invincible, but you learn soon enough things can happen And whatever happens happens you either learn to accept it or you go downhill with it and it drags you down. David: Right, tell me about your accident Albert. Albert: after my accident, I ended up in hospital for seven weeks where I had both legs amputated above the knee, so I was pretty much designated a life in a wheelchair pretty harrowing in respect in the way I’ve felt about myself where my life has been shot a bit. I was a young active kid and now I’m reduced to a wheelchair in those days we all sort of thought that people with disabilities or disabled can’t achieve much and they’re on the back foot that was my first impression, but then living my life, I thought this is not going to be it, this disability is not going to define me and who I am and what I want to achieve if I can make a difference in Help, well that’s what I’m going to do. So I set upon myself to have to get back to the way of living and get back to uni so I went back to uni in the wheelchair. My brain was still there and unless you try you never know what you’re going to achieve so that’s what I did so I went back to uni in that time I went through rehabilitation, I got my prosthetic legs and I learn to walk again. That was pretty devastating itself in regards to the humiliation of falling over all the time, and being in pain and agony, and not being able to do what I wanted to do and being slow, it was just sheer frustration at times , it was easy to get into the wheelchair, but I set myself a task that I was going to walk again, and that’s what I did. I just kept pushing at it and pushing at it and eventually I got to some degree of normality and that’s what happens you just got to reflect back about when you were a child , and at the age of one and trying to walk, but it’s just perseverance and keeping at it and getting better at it and I learnt to walk and that was one big achievement in my life. I still use the wheelchair and that still gets me around clearly a lot more comfortable than having the prosthetic legs on, it gives me the ability to having the freedom is another amazing thing with the prosthetics been able to stand and walk being part of normal society. I wanted to have some fun and having fun is being out in the water paddling on a kayak racing in the wheelchair, playing tennis , even going to the snow fields and having a go at one of those mono ski’s was pretty fun as well had the opportunity to do that so you got to try things and see what you can do everybody’s got to learn somehow, regardless of who you are and what you do, everyone’s got to learn Just like if you going to learn the guitar you’re going to make a fool of yourself and then you may win it or you may not win it but you going to have a go sure it’s not where you want to be you’ve got to be who you can and you got a try go to close those doors and open opportunity doors and life will give you the advantage and the pleasure learning from people and getting support from your friends, your family, and also turning around and giving support to people who need you as well having gone through a disability, having going through that Been able to mentor, give people who are just become disabled or are a little bit lost in the world to sort of say just lend me a hand talk to me we all go up and down. It’s human nature to feel a little bit down at times and not everything goes well all the time you just got to wait for those good times and those good times are amazing and make life worthwhile always go for it Seek help from your friends and whatever happens. Be happy. Be happy and be comfortable with who you are is half the battle is well. David: you were married in 98 and you have two boys. Albert: I have a beautiful wife and two beautiful boys, and once again, being a disabled person in a wheelchair for you sort of have a low self-esteem who is going to marry me. People view themselves, as opposed to how they view others. You just got to give everything the opportunity don’t write yourself off with a low self-esteem. Be the best you can be and keep getting out and doing things I got married and have two lovely boys, one has finish university the other one still studying at the moment And I’m living life and having a great time you go through the throes of life when you’re going buying a property or renting or having a job my grounding is going to work every day and trying to make a go of things and try to make an effort in the world and support my family I feel really lucky I can do that. David: I know you’ve had numerous achievements looking at your Wikipedia page. What would you regard as your greatest achievement? Albert: being happy within myself. If you’re happy with in yourself, you are, happiness and people want to talk to you People want to spend time with you, society is having friends and community and conversation and good times it’s part of life it’s tough being isolated. It’s tough being alone in the world and not having support having family and your friends around you and you can support them. David: tell us about the Olympics in 2000 the power Olympics. Albert: in the first years of my disability, I always participated in sport, sport was my mental stability. My social activity just getting out there doing things made me feel free and alive and fitness was a bonus as well. I participated in all different sports wheelchair tennis basketball, marathon and hanging out with a bunch of great guys and giving me the opportunity to play in the Paralympics was just a wonderful experience. The team who we hang out with we wanted to be part of the Olympics and part of the Paralympics and it inspires people to go on to participate and go further. That was a great part of the sporting aspects of my life. It was wonderful great memories. David: and you’ve also been involved in boat racing. Have you? Albert: yeah, another opportunity came along, a guy advertised he was dyslexic, inviting people with disabilities. He wanted to showcase and demonstrate to the world anything can be achieve by disable persons. He wanted to put a crew of disable sailors together and sailed a disable boat in the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race he said you want to go sailing and I said sure I’ll go I wasn’t sure about offshore racing, but if I get an opportunity to go in a 54 foot racing yacht in the middle of Sydney Harbour, how good was that so I got the opportunity to do that and I got the opportunity to do some races down in early beach and the Gold Coast things like that And that inspired me and it was so much fun hanging out with these guys. It was really tough. Had really high days the cold the extremes then when I got off the boat, I’m sure I was never to get back on the boat again, but the memories of the friendship and the adventures, I was back on there again in a few years’ time, gosh it was an adventure. David: you certainly done a hell of a lot even a lot more than a lot of able people have. Albert: it’s the attitude of life, my friend you’ve got to, when you get an opportunity you’ve got to give it a shot that’s something, I would like to say to people just try participate in life, it’s part of what we’re here for. We are social beings. We want to have good times and unit part of that you have to participate. You have to have something to look forward to. You. Got to work towards it and your achievements in the sense of achievement you’ve got, and then you’ll have the attitude that you’ve achieved something. David: Tell me a little bit about your making Waves foundation. Albert: making Waves is a group that runs sales for disabilities on that yacht. We created an opportunity for disadvantage kids and disabled kids to give them the experience of being on the water we had a boat specially design that would accommodate People with a disability we try and build people’s confidence and skills and show boat building and carpentry so it’s an opportunity to give back to others. It’s a great organisation and it’s still doing some great things out there and they showcasing it through opportunities of sailing David: that sounds like a wonderful foundation if we could finish up on what motivates you? Albert: living life, the more you do the more you want to do and the scary part. If you don’t do anything, you get more fearful you, just you participate less it’s a matter of little steps, be part of life, be part of adventure, be part of society Get out there and try and make a difference to yourself and to other people and help people help themselves and you will find that giving is some of the best ways to feel good about yourself. David: serotonin, I think is the chemical that gets released in your brain when you give , I’ve looked into that a little bit that’s wonderful thanks a lot for being the third guest on my podcast Albert have you got any words of wisdom just to leave us with Albert: just be happy and thank you for the opportunity you’re doing some great things and I appreciate the opportunity to talk with you. David: you’ve been a very inspirational speaker.