Boring days the best for Kristee

For Townsville’s Kristee Shepherd, boring days are underrated.

The fact that she can now describe a typical day in her life as “the most nice, boring day ever” is testimony to how far the 25-year-old has come in living independently.

“I get up, I go to work, if I find some energy, I’ll organise something to do afterwards. I do everything for myself,” said Kristee, who lives with her three dogs in the city’s outer suburbs.

It wasn’t always like this. Sustaining paraplegia at 18 in a fall from a ledge at James Cook University, Kristee, like many people who are injured at a young age, was initially very dependent on her mum.

“In the Unit, there were four older ladies who spent most of their time in bed, 40 fellas and me,” Kristee said.

“There were no other young women. So I was a bit of a mummy’s girl.”

Kristee spent eight months in the Spinal Injuries Unit in Brisbane where she admits her reluctance to engage in the rehabilitation process hindered her recovery.

“I had to be dragged into physio,” she said.

“I’m not sporty, I’m not active. I hated it and I was useless at it and always sore afterwards. That’s why I was there [in the Unit] so long. We’d go out and go shopping. I did more shopping than rehab. I’d go to mum’s for dinner rather than eat in the Unit.”

When Kristee was released, she went to live in her hometown of Mt Isa with her Mum, stepfather Glenn, and sister Tylah who was then seven. Despite great friends and supportive family, Kristee began a year of what she described as ‘just sitting around’.

“I used to spend a lot of time waiting – waiting around for everyone else to determine when I got up, what I did,” she said.

By 2006, Kristee was “just sick of it … I couldn’t do what I wanted to do” and said she reached a turning point.

“I couldn’t do anything for myself. I had a carer coming every morning to help me to do things I really could’ve done myself. I was just happy to cruise along,” she said.

“Mum would go away and I couldn’t do anything or Tylah would help me. One day she was helping me get into bed and I said to myself, ‘What am I doing? She’s seven.’ I realised I needed to go back in. I had to do the physio, do the work.”

Kristee said she was inspired by the people she met in the Unit and after three months, she left and began a new, more independent life, starting with fulltime work for Queensland Health.

“I bought a car and I realised I could go places and do stuff. It was such a change from that first year,” she said.

Moving to Townsville to continue working for Queensland Health in the area of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs, Kristee gained her Certificate IV in that field. Now studying a degree in behavioural sciences, with majors in criminology and public relations, Kristee is excited about a future career, perhaps working in a not-for-profit organisation.

Kristee has also recently joined the Spinal Injuries Association’s Spinal Education Awareness Team (SEAT) and says she loves being a SEAT presenter, which involves speaking to children from Prep to Year 12 throughout North Queensland about how she sustained her spinal cord injury, and how to prevent it from happening to them.

“I enjoy it because not only do I think that by speaking to the kids I might be able to prevent something from happening to them, but I remember that before my accident I had never met a person in a wheelchair,” she said.

“The only person I knew of was Superman [Christopher Reeve].

“So through SEAT, students get to see that you are a normal person, that you can be funny and not hate your life.”

Kristee said it was gratifying to receive feedback from students, especially when it occurred in the least likely of places.

“I was on Magnetic Island for New Year’s Eve and this guy yelled out to me, ‘Hey, I know you! You came to my school … that speech was awesome. Don’t worry, I won’t be drinking and driving.’”

When not working, Kristee enjoys travel and loved a recent US holiday, with plans for another holiday Stateside soon – this time a self-driving tour.

Friends are enormously important to Kristee and she is close to what she describes as a “core group” who are mostly in Mt Isa but who visit often.

“My friends are awesome. It’s nice knowing that they knew me before I was in a wheelchair,” she said.

“Even now, one of my friends is about to buy a house – she wouldn’t even go and look at one and her boyfriend asked her why. She said, ‘How would Kristee get up the stairs?’ My friends are always thinking ‘Can Kristee do it?’ ‘Can Kristee come?’. They always include me and set a high standard for any future friends.”

Kristee said her mother and sister had felt the effects of her injury most acutely and that, even now, she saw the impact on Tylah, who will turn 13 this year.

“Every now and then she’ll say something that makes me realise how hard it’s been for her,” she said.

A positive change that Kristee has noticed since her accident was how it “brought the family together”. She now enjoys a much better relationship with her Dad, who works at the coal mines in Moranbah and keeps a room at her house.

Kristee enjoys the busy life of many young women and is annoyed when people act as if her achievements are somehow special.

“People say to me ‘you’re so strong’ and I think ‘no, not really, I just have better things to do than sit around and mope’. I just want to get back out there and see what I can do,” she said.

Spinal Injuries Association Chief Executive Officer Mark Henley said Kristee’s story demonstrated that having a spinal cord injury was not an impediment to being actively involved in the community and leading a fulfilling life.

“The entire Spinal Injuries Association is dedicated to assisting and empowering its 2,000 members and clients throughout Queensland to live as independently as possible in their community.”

Issued 8 March.