By Margaret Brown
Sally Thomas weighs 36 kg and has the face of a teenager, but the 32 year old is stronger than she looks, inside and out.
Thomas is on the Canadian power lifting team and can bench press almost twice her weight.
She has also placed fourth at the International Paralympic Committee World Power Lifting Championships in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in August 2002.
“And that was only my second meet,” Thomas laughs.
Between her training schedule and her job as a physical trainer, Thomas is in the gym almost everyday.
The bright-eyed, energetic woman is a strong advocate for equal treatment for disabled and able-bodied people alike.
Through her volunteer work, Thomas spreads the message that people with disabilities are normal.
With a program called the Royals Tip-off, Thomas brings wheelchairs into different schools for a week so students can get an idea of what it’s like to have a disability.
At the end of the week, Thomas and a few other wheelchair athletes challenge the students to a game of wheelchair basketball.
“The program has been well received by the schools and especially by the students,” says Marnie Peters, a member of the national women’s wheelchair basketball team and a regular speaker at the Tip-off program. “It has made them more aware of people with disabilities and some of the obstacles that we encounter everyday like steps where there doesn’t need to be steps.”
Thomas is beginning to speak more instead of just playing sports. She enjoys teaching and says the Tip-off program is a good way to teach without having to go to university.
Thomas also uses her recreation diploma from Algonquin College to teach athletes in her work as a personal trainer with a company called Top Shape. However, she still wants to develop her skills as a public speaker.
Right now, Thomas mostly fields questions from students about living with a disability and playing wheelchair basketball.
“The kids love it,” Thomas says. “They ask a lot of questions, right from ‘how old are you?’ to ‘do you sleep in a bed?’ to ‘how long have you been playing basketball?’.”
Thomas admits she is not the best basketball player, but enjoys surprising people with what she can do.
Lisgar Collegiate Institute has hosted the Tip-off program for the past three years. Karen Cairns, head of the physical education department, says she definitely wants the program to return next year.
“I play basketball and I found it very difficult [in a wheelchair]
with the upper body strength that’s required and not using my legs at all,” Cairns says. “I could shoot some baskets sitting in the chair if I was close enough, but it was much easier if I was moving.”
“We like to get the teachers involved, because the teachers are even amazed at how much we can do,” Thomas says.
Thomas says before participating in the Tip-off program some of the kids don’t know anything about disabilities. “A lot of kids ask us if we sleep in our chairs. I think they think we’re stuck in them and can’t get out,” Thomas says.
“The program shows students that they aren’t really disabled. They’re just differently-abled,” says Xiaoting Wang, an eleventh grade student at Lisgar.
Wang has participated in the Royals Tip-off program for four years and says wheelchair basketball “seems pretty easy, but it’s actually pretty challenging.”
Thomas gets proof that her message is being received in the reaction of the students after they have been through the Tip-off program.
“A lot of kids ask for our autographs after the demonstrations,” Thomas says. “That feels pretty good.”
Thomas says awareness is only part of the battle.
Thomas also advises the City of Ottawa Transportation and Transit Committee on a number of accessibility issues.
“I got involved when the Para Transpo strike happened in 2001. For more than two months we were stranded,” Thomas says.
When she’s talking politics, she leans forward, her eyes light up and her gestures become more emphatic.
But then she laughs again when she talks about what she thinks are some ridiculous aspects of the bus service.
Thomas says she is unhappy with how the Para Transpo strike was settled and believes the service needs a lot of improvement. She says it doesn’t make sense that OC Transpo users have reliable service, but Para Transpo users don’t.
“A lot of people in Ottawa are soft,” Thomas says. “They’ll complain, but they won’t talk to the people who can change things.”
She regularly writes letters and calls city councillors and Mayor Bob Chiarelli.
“Some people just move to a city that is more accessible. But I want to stay and make things better for the people who can’t move,” Thomas says.
Thomas uses sports and the Tip-off program as a way to interest people in the challenges facing the disabled community in Ottawa, but it also is entertainment.
“I play basketball just for fun,” Thomas laughs.
“A disability doesn’t mean that you’re not active in sports and in life,” Peters says. “Just because somebody looks different or has a disability doesn’t mean they don’t have the same hopes and dreams.”
Thomas is recovering from a tendon injury that has been a recurring problem throughout her long sport career.
She has just begun to lift weights again, but hopes to set a new personal record at her next competition in Hartford, Connecticut in June.
Thomas’s best lift is unofficially 62 kg but officially 55 kg. With training and more experience at competitions, Thomas hopes to qualify for the next Paralympics in 2004.
Between travelling to various competitions around the world, her job and her volunteer work, Thomas says she just wants to relax and watch TV during her spare time.
Thomas is very open and easy to talk to. She discusses her disability and her life with the same friendly honesty.
A conversation with Thomas proves what she says when she spells out her message: “I’m normal, just like you.”