Author: Trish (Page 2 of 6)

Lawnton State School

March 15, 2018 / Trish

At Lawnton State School we dream big and have a philosophy that all our students, regardless of circumstances, are expected to aim and achieve high. Today Trish you were the epitome of grace and dignity and all things that Lawnton hold true. Our students were fascinated with your talk today and the positive way you promoted success on all levels and under all circumstances.

Our Facebook page is buzzing with excited parents and children sharing your journey and with one of our little year 1 students telling him mum, “see I can do it mum, Trish said there is no such word as “Can’t” You have made such a positive impact on all our community with sharing your story.

I love how both you and Trevor gave your time so freely to stay back with the myriad of students wanting you to draw for them and just be with you.

We have officially made you a Lawnton legend and would love to have you back to our school on our “Dream Big” afternoons where we ask or community to share stories with our students to inspire them to reach for the stars.

Thank you again, you have changed someone’s world today.

Principal, Lawnton State School

Good evening Trish and Trevor,

I just wanted to write and say a huge thank you to you both for coming to our school today and speaking with our community. Your message was so positive and powerful – and has had a big impact with our students and staff alike. At our school we are endeavouring to create leaders, and what better way to do this than to have someone who is an inspirational leader stand before our students and tell them their story of persistence, perseverance, courage and resilience. In speaking with our children today, I truly believe that you have altered the trajectory for some of our little guys in a positive and significant way… an outcome you may never get to hear about until 20 years from now – or maybe ever… but your message will resonate throughout their stories as they live their own lives and influence others in the way that you have influenced them. Just as your friend who was a teacher inspired you all those years ago by asking you to come to her school – you coming to speak at our school will no doubt have that very same impact.

On a personal note, meeting both you and Trevor has reaffirmed to me that there are still genuine and good people in the world, and that as a school we are not alone in trying to make tomorrow a better place for our kids. This has lifted me and has solidified my resolve that we can make a real difference in lives. Thank you.

Now we do things a little bit differently at our school compared to everywhere else that you might have been – and we are big believers in things happening at our school for a reason… so as we mentioned today you are now both officially adopted by our school community and are part of our Lawnton State School family. We viewed today as the start of a beautiful friendship and look forward to seeing how we will continue to cross paths along the way… this is non optional. J

I have included below a quick snip off our school’s Facebook page from a post that was put up earlier… Never underestimate the difference one person with a story to tell can make or where their influence might end!

Thank you again and we look forward to catching up again soon.

Warm regards,

Teacher, Lawnton School.

Feedback – Gold Coast school.

February 23, 2018 / Trish

Feedback from a teacher at a school on the Gold Coast that I spoke at yesterday.

‘Students were mesmerised by Trish’s inspirational presentation today. Her delivery was heartfelt and authentic. She left so many messages for our young people… empathy, stop the bullying, never let anyone tell you that you can’t and to be resilient. You could hear a pin drop in the audience and numerous students thanked Trish for sharing her story and felt motivated to embrace their fears’

I really can’t thank you enough for helping our young people as they face their daily challenges.

Trevor, thankyou also for being so tech savvy and being such a big part of this.

Feedback.

February 22, 2018 / Trish

Another school visit this time in the Sunshine Coast area. 172 students consisting of grades 10,11 and year 12.
From the teacher that asked me to the school..
“The students were so impressed and learnt heaps. Trish helped empower our real strugglers. What a great message”.

First talks for 2018.

February 16, 2018 / Trish

This week entailed visiting two schools, one a high school the other a primary school. It is great to be back into the swing of speaking to schol children again.

Feedback from the Principal of the primary school I spoke at this morning:

Trish addressed 150 of our Years 4-6 students and 40 parents and staff today, as our Guest Speaker for our Student Leader Induction Ceremony. For 45 minutes, she had the entire audience enthralled. My only regret is that I didn’t include our Years 2 and 3 students in the presentation. Her life story was genuine, heartfelt and inspiring to every person in the room. Once finished, I asked the students to share one key message they gained from Trish’s presentation. Responses included: ‘Don’t let anybody tell you can’t do something’, ‘It doesn’t matter about your appearance, it’s what’s inside that counts’, ‘If you want something badly enough, you can do it’, and ‘If somebody says something mean to you, it doesn’t matter….as long as you believe in yourself’. I believe this was a life-lesson that could not have been more powerfully delivered and it will stay with our students for a very long time.

International Day of People with a Disability 2017

December 5, 2017 / Trish

Sunday 3rd December 2017 was #IDPWD International Day of People with a Disability. I was asked to be part of iFLY Indoor Skydiving (Gold Coast, QLD) https://downunder.iflyworld.com/ifly-accessibility who are totally geared up to include people with all ranges of disability to participate. Yesterday they gave 100 disabled people to try skydiving for free..

To say it was awesome is just an understatement.. I am so glad I got to do this, I don’t get to do many sporting things … this was just incredible.. The instructors were awesome, caring and just made everyone feel at ease and made the experience so worthwhile.

Who needs arms to skydive?

ABC TV. WOMEN’S WORK

November 5, 2017 / Trish

Recently the ABC TV did a stoty on my public speaking, my drawings and photography… Here are the links if you would like to have a look at them. I am just 1 of the women who the ABC are showcasing in their “womens work’ series…

.http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-10-21/trish-jackson-thalidomide-survivor-motivational-speaker/9065548

If you would like to see the extended version of my story, then this is the link. This longer version was shown on the ABC morning news show.

Kindergarten fun.

November 5, 2017 / Trish

I spent the morning at a kindergarten with around 44 three and four year old children. What a great time we all had. I showed them some of my drawings and photography. We chatted about how I did things with no arms. I then read them a book, did puzzles, played with magnets, I was shown the hermit crabs they had. Lastly we did a music song about making pizza but we all played and used our feet to use the rhythm sticks to beat to the music. It was such great fun. The poor teacher aide kept getting cramps in her feet from holding the rhythm sticks in her toes… . this is the gift they gave me for giving up my time and visiting them.

Later that afternoon I did a radio interview about my life for a community radio station. Which was great fun http://phoenixradi2.wixsite.com/phoenixradio

Toowoomba region

September 17, 2017 / Trish

‘I CAN’ is the motto we should all live by!

Trish Jackson is an amazing inspiration for Year 5M and other upper school classes at Newtown State School. Born with no arms she has learnt to do everything with her legs including some lovely art she chose to share with students. Trish told us that when she walks down the street people call her mean names, which she has learnt to overcome during her life where everything has been tough and done differently.

Trish encouraged the students to give everything their best especially when it’s tough. The art she shared allowed the students to draw lovely Australian animals and scenes.

‘We know we can- ‘cause Trish has proven that to us!’ said one 5M student.

By the teacher of 5M

Trip to Maryborough

September 5, 2017 / Trish

Took a drive up to Maryborough (216km) last weekend stopping along the way to spend Saturday night catching up with friends, then early Sunday morning we turned the car north for our last bit of our trip to Maryborough, where we had a lovely coffee and breakfast at Restaurant 71 on the wharf looking out over the Mary river.

After some sightseeing, it was off to the Anglican church hall for lunch, as I was asked to be the guest speaker for their annual lunch with around 94 people in attendance. Unfortunately, my A/V presentation did not go quite to plan (photos were hard to see, technology is great when it all works) luckily, I had my cards on display for them to see my artwork.

When I finished my presentation I was overwhelmed, even a little embarrassed to receive a standing ovation from all the attendees. It is amazing how people both children and Adults relate to stories of my life. If only I was a famous sporting Celebrity or a would-be politician I could easily get speaking engagements to share my story, being an un-known name makes it harder to find places who want to hear my story.

Thank you to Tricia for asking me to be the guest speaker.

On the Monday, I spent the morning whale watching on Whalesong out of Hervey Bay, with Trevor and some friends. I was very excited to be going whale watching, it must be one of the things that you have on your bucket List. The experience is just amazing when you see your first whale. I was excited at the prospect and hoping with everything crossed that I would get that one, award-winning shot that I could be proud of but the odds were stacking up against me. The first thing that was against me was that it was a very rough day on the water, now I don’t usually get seasick, I have only ever been seasick once and that was more than enough, it is just the worst feeling, I took a seasickness tablet just in case, I didn’t want seasickness to spoil my day. Sadly, many people on the boat were a very lovely shade of green, happily I was not sick at all. When I got on the boat I promptly headed to the bow of the boat and plonked myself down and that was going to be my spot for the day nothing was going to move me from that spot because being a bit rough in the water you had to hold on to the railings with all your might to steady yourself. This leads into my second thing stacking up against me of taking any photos, I don’t have any arms to hold on, so I had to wrap my legs around the railings of the boat to anchor myself. Which is why I grabbed my spot at the front of the boat as I knew there was no way I could ever walk around the boat once it set sail. My feet were not only busy trying to hold on but were also trying to hold my camera so that I could take photos. My wonderful hubby stood behind me so that I did not fly backwards off my seat in case my feet let go of the rails, he too had to do this while he was holding on to steady himself. It was not rough the whole trip just when we got out of the bay it got rough, so most of the time it was very pleasant. When I got home to look at my photos I have beautiful photos of either the sea or the sky, there were just no whales swimming or jumping in any of them, they were just pretty shades of blue photos, then again none of the other passengers were taking photos with their feet, so I’m pretty excited that I have at least half a dozen that I am quite happy with. It just makes these photos all that sweeter because of the effort and difficulty of me taking photos with my feet.

Don’t tell me I can’t. I can!!!

Tuesday, I headed off to spend a couple of hours at Maryborough special school, with Teacher Rose and her art students, though I think the whole school showed up. I did my first special school presentation, after complicating of my presentation and answering their questions a group of us did a quick smiley face foot drawing then we changed students then did a quick painting of a football again with our feet. Thank you to Rose and Maryborough Special School. I had a great time.

The beautiful hall at Maryborough.

Foot paintings from the kids at Maryborough special school.

I was given a beautiful plant at the end of my presentation.

You certainly made a great impression on our students. Feedback from grade nine students in FNQ.

August 14, 2017 / Trish

It had a good, human appeal. She talked like she knew us and was comfortable with sharing her story

She spoke and presented in a more casual and relaxed way which allowed her to connect with her audience a bit more and it made her presentation more interactive. Her powerpoint gave us many examples of what happens in her life and what she has achieved which really captured the audience and made the presentation really interesting.

Trish spoke to us in a relaxed manner and really from the heart. I enjoyed that she did this and did not just read off a piece of paper which I felt I had a personal connection with her. I loved her powerpoint; it put her presentation on a whole other level. Overall, I truly loved the fact that it was her telling us her story and she was open and honest with us. I loved listening to her. She is an extremely inspirational person; one I will never forget.

Trish spoke with so much confidence and the presentation inspired so many of us and talked to us like she has known us all along and was happy to tell us two amazing stories about her childhood which were funny.

Trish’s presentation was very inspiration and I believe, had a connection with her audience. She was quite comfortable in communicating with us and that meant that she was relaxed. She was very interesting and confident in her presentation and spoke with ease and with her heart. Trish, is a very inspiration woman and helped us understand what we all have so many things that we should be grateful for.

Trish’s presentation to us was very inspirational, and wonderful. Unlike any other speaker, she didn’t use palm cards or read off a sheet of paper which created a connection between her and the audience. The powerpoint was beautiful, along with the pictures, they were great! I loved her personal stories and how she overcame her challenges in life, she is truly inspirational. We learnt so much from Trish, especially how to be more resilient and accepting ourselves for who we are already.

Trish’s presentation was very inspirational and made me not take things for granted, and to always try my hardest at everything. She had created a connection with the audience as she told very interesting and funny stories, and in all she is truly inspirational.

Trish’s presentation was truly inspirational to all and very funny. She spoke from the heart and with great ease. She taught me to not take thing for granted and live life to the full. The stories she told along the way were funny and showed a very personal experience. She spoke of her life in a very personal level making it inspirational and unique from other presentations we have seen in the past. Trish is a truly inspirational, very funny and loving person.

Trish’s presentation was told by the heart and was very touching. I found her stories that she shared to be truly inspirational and gave me an insight into how lucky we are and how fortunate we all need to be. The hardships that Trish shared with us made me think twice about how i perceive things and that you must drive yourself to be better than what people limit you to be. The presentation was spoken on a personal level which helped to create a connection with the audience and truly engaged everyone. The powerpoint gave more insight into what Trish gets up to on a daily basis and images of her family and from when she was younger made it more interactivel. In the end, I understood more about not letting hardships get the better of you and accepting ourselves for who we are. Trish is a very inspirational woman and I am grateful for the time she spent talking to us about what she has gone through and no matter what to always keep your head high and move forward and push beyond the boundaries no matter our ability.

Other then Trish’s amazing, natural and definitely inspiring way of presenting to us, I felt as though she was very confident and assertive when sharing her personal and ongoing difficulties she is put through everyday. I knew life without arms would be difficult but Trish definitely put it into perspective as she had to learn to do a lot things we do with our arms, with her feet! As she said her arms were not the only thing interfering with her life as she also had a heart condition, which made a few more everyday exercises strenuous, this even included walking a short distance. But here she was today doing the things everyone said she was never going to be able to do, this made me realise how capable people without a heart condition or no arms are even when they are still complaining about doing simple tasks. The presentation itself was very engaging because its not everyday we get to hear about someone’s personal life experience without arms and a heart condition, and we were interested in discovering how life would be in other circumstances. Obviously Trish’s aim is to show us how we can overcome hardship and still do whatever we want to do with our lives and she certainly changed my outlook on how we should be living our lives.

Trish was an inspirational women, she inspired me and many other people who listened to her . She overcame challenges that could seem impossible in our eyes, she’s a true inspiration and it’s so lovely to hear from.

Trish is such an amazing, brave and inspirational women. Hearing her speak really changed my perspective on life. The things that I constantly take granted for, she isn’t even able to have. It was very interesting to hear her amazing journey and how to she came to cope with life challenges.

Trish is truly inspiring not to mention very cool. I really enjoyed listen to her stories and learning how her childhood was and how she overcame her struggles

Trish was such an inspirational person. She was confident in expressing her story and taught us to be comfortable with ourselves and focus of the positives rather than the negatives in life.

Trish was an amazing inspirational speaker, her way of talking, you could tell it was from the heart, it was very touching. She seemed so confident about herself, and talks about here disability as a gift. Showing us her a different way of life. I could just listen to her childhood stories for hours. She is someone i would want to be friends with, i hope she can come back to the school next year and talk with us again.

Trish was such an inspirational speaker. She was confident in explaining her story and taught us to be comfortable with ourselves and focus of the positives rather than the negatives in life.