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Stories and quotes

As we have worked with people on the program many of them give us some fabulous stories and quotes. We thought we should share some of them. They may encourage you. They may make you laugh. They may make you think. Hopefully they will make you continue to work on your balance and strength. If they can do it so can you.

Doris

Doris is a slightly built frail lady who lives on her own. She really ‘got’ the program. She had polio as a child and hip replacements a few years ago. Doris says that she wished she had done LiFE straight after her hip replacement. It would have made all the difference to her independence. She believes it has made a huge difference to her now.

Once she got the idea of LiFE she found lots of opportunities to include the LiFE activities into her daily routine. She made some small changes to where she put things to provide more opportunities to do the activities. Some of her favourite changes were putting her 94fruit bowl on a lower table so every time she picked up a piece of fruit she had to squat down. She found the stepping over objects and standing on one leg doing different things really helpful, and she made lots of opportunities to do these activities.

She doesn’t drive and relies on public transport. Volunteer work was important in her life and she had to catch the bus to do this. She was thinking about giving it up because she was afraid of the steps on the bus. Now because of the program she has the confidence to catch the bus as she can now manage the steps. She was facing doing less but now is doing more.

She was starting to cut back on things to be safer. Now her attitude is, ‘I need to be aware of safety but I need to train harder to be able to do the things I want to do’. Doris has not only mastered the LiFE program, she understands the philosophy of upgrading and the personal benefits of the program.

Enid

Enid has lived alone since she lost her husband two years ago. She has had a knee replacement and has had some pressure from her GP, family and others to think about a retirement village ‘to make it easier for her’. This would mean leaving her home and her enormous garden full of cymbidiums and native orchids that were planted by her husband.

She took to the program really well and saw the multiple levels of her home as a chance to get stronger rather than an obstacle that would force her out of her home.

She can now confidently walk up and down her stairs without holding on for support, while she knows to hold on if she is tired.

95Enid’s garden has some rock steps that lead onto a nature reserve. It had been suggested that these should be redone in concrete. Enid preferred the natural look of the rock steps as they too were a connection to her husband. Now she is able to safely manage them.

When Enid and the ‘other grandmother’ were invited to their grandchild’s engagement party, Enid was the only one who could attend because only she could manage the stairs. Her family attributed her strength to the LiFE program.

Harry

Robert

Clive