Countries

MY HEROS: PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES

STEPHEN HAWKING

Stephen Hawking was born on 8 January 1942[1] to Frank and Isobel Hawking. He is an English theoretical physicist, cosmologist, author and Director of Research at the Center for Theoretical Cosmology within the University of Cambridge.

Stephen has two younger sisters, Philips and Mary, and an adopted brother.

Hawking is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a lifetime member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, and a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States. Hawking was the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge between 1979 and 2009.

When he was 21, before his first marriage, Stephen lost his balance and fell down a flight of stairs, hitting his head. Worried that the he would lose his genius, he took the Mensa test to verify that his intellectual abilities were intact.

He was diagnosed with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis). The doctors said he would not survivor more than three years. Hawking gradually lost the use of his arms, legs and voice, and as of 2009 was almost completely paralyzed.

He can now only speak with the assistance of a computer and has been a fulltime powerchair-user since the 1980s. his disability however has never been an excuse to give up on his desire to study the universe.

SUDHA CHANDRAN

Sudha Chandran was born to Tamil-Brahmin parents in Kannur, Kerala on 21 September 1964

She is an accomplished Bharatanatyam dancer, Indian film and television actress, who turned to acting following the loss of a leg in an accident in June 1981 near Trichy, Tamil Nadu

The doctors missed a wound on her ankle and plastered the leg. After two weeks, Chandran returned to Madras for a checkup and doctors realized that the wound was now infected and a gangrene had formed and there was no alternative other than to amputate her leg. Chandran says that this period was the toughest time of her life. She subsequently overcame her disability with the help of a prosthetic 'Jaipur foot', becoming one of the most highly acclaimed dancers of the Indian subcontinent.

She has acted in a movie on classical dance called "Nache Mayuri" & today acts in a variety of TV serials.

NICHOLAS JAMES "NICK" VUJICIC

Nicholas James (was born 4 December 1982) is an Australian Christian evangelist and motivational speaker born with tetra-amelia syndrome, a rare disorder characterized by the absence of all four limbs. As a child, he struggled mentally and emotionally as well as physically, but eventually came to terms with his disability and, at the age of seventeen, started his own non-profit organization, Life Without Limbs. Vujicic presents motivational speeches worldwide which focus on life with a disability, hope and finding meaning in life.

...