Lynette “Lives the day”

Through her association with IRIS Ltd’s “Work for Purpose” group Lynette Loye became aware of the New Zealand Disability Support Network conference in Nelson (16 March 2011) She was intrigued with the theme “Live the day” as it was all about inclusion.

Her interest grew when IRIS Rehabilitation manager Barbara Fox asked her to become part of the presentation team. She had also been working on the theme of inclusion in her art work, supervised by Rehabilitation and Arts Therapist, Marion Gordon-Flower. Her paintings became a vital part of the presentation.

Barbara and Lynette started planning their abstract for the conference in November last year. The criteria was to produce a two paragraph summary which must match the “Live the day” theme.

All their hard graft paid off when approval of their paper came through.

The second stage of their planning began as the presentation needed fine tuning and Lynette started working on her fitness and strength levels.This was the first time she had been away without a support person and she was determined to be in good physical shape.

On the day of departure to Nelson the group arrived at the airport half an hour early as requested. As per usual a glassed encased forklift delivered Lynette to the aircraft door where the air hostess unfolded a ramp to bridge the gap between the lift and plane. This method was no surprise to Lynette as she uses the forklift on her regular trips home.

Lynette was pleased that she raised her physical fitness levels as she had to transfer twelve times during her flight to Nelson and her returned flight home as well as adjusting to a different environment in Nelson.

The conference itself was a great success. Barbara and Lynette’s presentation entitled “Fabulous Failures” was a great hit as it focused on everyone reaching their own levels of achievements.