Meg's Story: How SSASS Set her Free

 



Meg McIntrye skiing in this year's Carter Classic

The first time I saw Meg McIntrye ski, I was surprised to learn she was a student with SSASS (Silver Star Adaptive Snow Sports).  She’s your quintessential Aussie: energetic and friendly, with a sunshine smile, and a twinkle in her eye.  A multi-coloured tuft of hair extends out from the front of her helmet.  And she is a very good skier, with that smooth style of someone who grew up with skis on her feet.

Meg started skiing at age 7.  He father had been a pioneer in the early days of skiing in Australia.  He and his buddies had built a back country lodge in 1950/51, in the Perisher Valley, located in the Snowy Mountains, a major ski area today.

The family loaded up the 5 kids with their wooden skis and hand-made jumpers and mittens and made the 8 hour journey from Sydney to the lodge every opportunity they had.  This made for an idyllic childhood and resulted in Meg developing a deep passion for skiing which has never waned.

 She was an athletic kid taking up track and field, cricket and field hockey.  At age 10 a sport injury introduced her to the world of sport medicine.  This experience gave her the inspiration to become and Physiotherapist.  During Uni, she only accepted student placements in the south so she could ski as much as possible but then, after graduation she accepted a ‘short-term’ position up in Port Macquarie Base Hospital in northern New South Wales where she morphed from a big city girl to a small-centre country girl.  This transition involved participation in local sports.  And soon she was both a participant and the official (or unofficial) team physio.  To this day she calls Port Macquarie home.

Her skill both at sport and as a physio became noticed and soon she was participating at a state level.  When she was asked to become the Physio for the Australian women’s cricket team she decided she needed more knowledge and returned to school in Perth to take sports physio.  Not long after she expanded her role, becoming the physio for the Women’s National Australian field hockey team.  That role took her to the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 where the Australian National ‘Hockeyroos’ won gold.

After the Atlanta Olympics, she returned to University to obtain a Master’s degree.   Around this time she was asked to become the Deputy Director of the Physiotherapy Centre for the 2000 Olympics/Para Olympics in Sydney.  While continuing her job in Port Macquarie, she took on this huge new challenge which encompassed ensuring physiotherapy services were available for all sports, training venues and for every participating country.

“My involvement in sport has taught me important lessons for life”, she tells me.  “You need to learn to work within the rules and with a team and to work under pressure.  You need to learn to win and to lose”. Life has presented Meg with many challenges and she’s needed all these life skills.

 The hectic pace continued until the end of the Commonwealth Games held in Melbourne in 2002.  Then she settled back into life in Port Macquarie and a full time private practice.  She also had to come to grips with the annoying and bizarre symptoms she had been experiencing for some time: occasionally losing sight in one eye, tingling hands and numbness in herlegs.   The diagnosis was Multiple Sclerosis.

Meg a few years ago with SSASS Instructor Colette Laplante, and outriggers

 

The hot weather of Australia is not tolerated well by persons with MS.  So when Meg heard that one of her clients was going off to BC to ski all summer (winter in BC) and she discovered the unique relationship of house swapping between Port Macquarie and Vernon/Silver Star, she and her partner Judi were over here by the next ski season.

That was 9 years ago and they have returned every year since.  The first couple years Met felt so well that her skiing improved despite her diagnosis.  But MS being the erratic and progressive condition that it is, presented more challenges with the passing of time. 

When she arrived here 4 years ago, she was unwell and very discouraged.  She worried that she did not have the strength to stand long enough to do one run.  Someone mentioned SSASS to her, maybe they could help…

 

“It was not easy to show up at SSASS and ask for help”, she tells me.  But she found her initial visit and conversation with SSASS instructor Colette LaPlante to be encouraging.  She learned to use outriggers (essentially ski-poles with little ski-blades on the bottom).  She found they took a huge load off her legs, and she could get down the mountain with less effort.  But most of her SSASS training has focused on technique, to make her a more efficient skier. She has joined the SSASS race team to work on her technique and says that on good days she actually skis better now. But all days are not good and she has to cope with her MS symptoms which bother her much more when she is not on skis.   “Skiing has always given me a sense of freedom and SSASS has set me free again”

Meg, proud member of the SSASS Race Team

Meg is a huge supporter of the Carter Classic Memorial Dual Slalom, SSASS’s annual FUNdrai$er.  Most years she mobilizes several teams to participate as well as participating herself in the recreational race which is open to skiers/boarders of all ages and abilities.  This year’s Carter Classic was held last  Saturday Feb 20 and Meg was busy enjoying the special comradery of getting local and visiting, old and young, able bodies and disabled skiers together. This year, in conjunction with the Carter Classic, SSASS held  a ‘disAbility Awareness Day’ in the Village where the public could see and try out some of the equipment SSASS uses with its clients.  The day with finished with the draw for the No Barriers raffle.   For more info:  www.ssass.bc.ca