Davidson, Mr Brayden

Ms COOK (Fisher) (15:35): Today, I would like to talk about an inspirational young graduate of Reynella East College. Reynella East College is the largest school in my electorate and has about 1,800 K-12 students. He is a fantastic South Aussie called Brayden Davidson. Brayden was born five weeks premature, which of course is a bit of a flag predominantly to physical developmental issues, but Brayden was not even diagnosed with cerebral palsy until he was four years old.

Cerebral palsy, as members may be aware, is a term used to describe a whole range of disorders which affect a person's ability to move. An individual's brain is generally damaged either during pregnancy or soon after birth. Once Brayden started kindy, his parents and teachers picked up that he was having some trouble with his gross and fine motor skills. He underwent an MRI and was referred to a specialist at the Women's and Children's Hospital. He was then connected with Novita Children's Services.

During Brayden's primary school days, he attended occupational therapy sessions at the Women's and Children's Hospital to help with his writing. Brayden's parents tell me that at one stage they were told he would probably need a scribe or a computer for his schoolwork, but he is a tenacious young man, and with perseverance and hard work Brayden learned to write. He had Botox injections and serial casting numerous times to assist with functionality of his limbs. He unfortunately became an easy target for bullies, as he was not as strong or as fast as the other boys in his class.

One day, when Brayden was six, he had a pretty bad day at school and he went to his nanna's house. Brayden's nanna was reading an article about the Paralympic Games. She told him, 'If you keep at your sport and train hard, one day you can go to the Paralympics.' A seed was planted that day, so good on you, nanna. Brayden loved all sports, but due to his disability he struggled in mainstream sport. One day, his parents received a flyer from Novita and the Australian Paralympic Committee about a talent search for rowing. He wanted desperately to try this, but mum knows best and she knew he did not have the upper body strength for rowing, so she told him to wait for another sport.

Brayden was impatient. He went searching the internet and found a talent search day for athletics. He went along with his dad for just a bit of fun and to hopefully find his way back to the sport that he originally tried and loved: swimming. He originally dreamed of swimming for Australia and learned to swim from three years of age. Swimming is often used as therapeutic support for young people with a disability. Brayden really enjoyed it and he swam to squads. However, due to his cerebral palsy, Brayden got very tight in the shoulders and the demands of swimming freestyle at that level became increasingly hard.

Brayden's parents approached the coach at the time—he had quite a young coach. They wanted to see whether he could modify Brayden's training so he did not have to swim freestyle as much, but the request was denied at that point. So Brayden walked away from that sport and that was when he took up athletics. The head coach heard of that a few months later and said he could modify the training for Brayden, but it was too late. He did return but he did not feel the same so he continued down the path of athletics.

The people involved thought Brayden showed some potential in the long jump. Within the next couple of months, he had been tested and received his classification to compete as a para-athlete in athletics, and he was off to his first national championships in Sydney. He won bronze in the long jump and silver in the 400 metres. Since then, he has never looked back.

Over the past five years, he has won a total of 10 gold medals in 100 metres, 200 metres, 400 metres and long jump at junior national championships. At open level, he has won one gold, three silver and one bronze in the long jump and 200 metres. He also has many state titles and Australian records, and one world record, which he achieved in 2015. He represented Australia at 15 years of age at the IPC world championships in Lyon in 2013, where he finished fourth. In 2015, he won bronze at the IPC world championships in Doha, two days after his 18^th birthday.

In 2016, he represented Australia at the Rio Paralympic Games, where he set a new Paralympic record of 5.62 metres—an 11-centimetre personal best—and won gold. He intends to return to study either at TAFE or uni next year and also to compete at the IPC world championships in London 2017. Congratulations, Brayden. You are the epitome of determination and a great example of making the most of a situation. You have proved that when one door closes another one can open. South Australia thanks you for that.