Voiceover:
Welcome to The Raw Nerve, the official podcast of MS Australia, a conversation space for all things multiple sclerosis. Join us for news and views on the latest research, treatments and advocacy efforts, as well as candid and informative interviews with our community, those living with MS and their families and carers together with leading clinicians, researchers, and advocates.
Jeremy Henderson:
Hello and welcome to the Raw Nerve. I’m your host, Jeremy Henderson. This week, the 2024 Paralympic Games will get underway in Paris. Now last week we had the pleasure of chatting with cyclist and two-time Paralympian Emily Petracola. This week I catch up with Ameera Lee, diagnosed with MS in 2012. Ameera took up para-archery in 2016 at the age of 40 and just seven years later, her performance at the Para-Archery World Championship in the Czech Republic had secured her a Paralympic spot for Paris 2024.
Ameera, thank you for joining us today. Firstly, big congratulations on your selection for the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, your Paralympic debut, I understand. I wonder if we can start with your MS story. I wonder if you could tell us when and where you were diagnosed with MS, and just a little bit about your own diagnosis journey.
Ameera Lee:
Okay, thank you for having me. It’s an honor. I was diagnosed with MS in 2012 and I was living in Dubai at the time, so the medical services that they were, I had numbness, I guess, on one side of my body for about two weeks. Having a background in working in hospitals as a medical secretary, I know that’s not the norm to have that numbness for a few weeks. So, I asked to be taken to the hospital and I went straight to emergency. They brought a neurologist down to see me. And basically, within three days, I had a full diagnosis of MS. So, I had two MRIs and yeah, so that was quite surprising.
At the time, when the neurologist sat me down and said, “I’m confident that you have a multiple sclerosis diagnosis,” I wasn’t too taken aback. The only thing I could think of is I remember MS as a high school student, we did the MS Readathon, so I know what that is. I did the readathon. That was the extent of my knowledge past that. So, I contacted MS in Australia to find out more information, but that’s the cards that you’re dealt with.
Jeremy Henderson:
We know that for some people their diagnosis journey can be months, if not many years, to get to that diagnosis point. And also, that sometimes when they look back at the first symptoms that they may have ignored, that it might’ve actually been present for longer. But in your case, this was the first real symptom that you’d had that something was amiss?
Ameera Lee:
Well, it’s interesting that you should say that. It’s the first, I guess. Obviously, the numbness was not normal feeling that sensation. And also, during that fortnight, I felt like I was dribbling, but I would check my mouth, I’m not dribbling. So, it was more of a sensation and what the feedback my body was giving me, but it was as a part of MS.
A story that I hear quite a lot is of people saying when they finally do get the diagnosis, that they have an ‘aha’ moment or something that’s happened 10 years ago or years previous. So, when I was 21, I was in a four-car pileup and I was bedridden for a few months. Now, back then, they didn’t do MRIs for car accidents. They would do CTs. So, I had a CT and nothing could be picked up and there was no rhyme or reason as to why I couldn’t walk for two months.
So, in hindsight, it’s quite possible that was my first MS episode that was undiagnosed. And 20 years down the track, it was picked up.
Jeremy Henderson:
Wow. Ameera, I wonder if you could tell us, how does MS impact your daily life?
Ameera Lee:
Interesting question. I guess you just manage your symptoms. So, every day, every minute, every second of every day, there’s not one moment that I don’t have an MS symptom. So, it could be something as simple as numbness in my arm, numbness in my legs, stomach issues, cognitive coordination, fine motor skills. Just a short list. But what you do is, I have a tendency just to manage the symptoms as they pop up, sometimes speech issues, but I see a speech therapist as well, so that helps with managing any issues that I’m having. And it’s more just having a little bit of control of how I manage the symptoms and every day is different. So, over time, you learn.
Jeremy Henderson:
What kind of management strategies do you have for trying to have as much control as you can over those symptoms?
Ameera Lee:
Well, first and foremost, I think the biggest thing that I do is just to be patient with myself and be mindful that I have these symptoms. So, I just manage the symptoms as they come and I do what I can. I do exercise. So, I want to put myself, my best foot forward, in what I can do to reduce symptoms as best as I can. So, exercise helps with the fatigue and also the, I guess, movement as well and strengthen up the muscles as best as I can to keep things moving.
And the speech therapy, which helps with my speech. My speech therapist is a music therapist, so we also do a bit of drum work. So, that helps with coordination skills. I’m just doing everything I can to be my best self and be graceful and gracious. And I’m not too harsh on myself, I guess, is a point that I’m trying to make. Everyone has their own thing and that’s just what I have and what I deal with.
Jeremy Henderson:
So, in the introduction, we congratulated you. We mentioned you’re going to the Paralympics, which is so exciting, and congratulations again.
Ameera Lee:
Thank you.
Jeremy Henderson:
How does it feel to be going to the Paralympics? And how did you find out? How does one find out that you’ve been selected in the Australian team? Is it an email, a telephone call? How did you find out about it?
Ameera Lee:
Okay. Now, my memory is cracked. I have a short-term memory loss too. Sometimes, it’ll come back. In terms of being the announcement, so we receive an email from the governing body of which for myself is Archery Australia. I’m going to take it back a little bit. Last year, I won the spot for Australia at the World Championships, but that doesn’t mean that I would be selected. So, we still have to go through selection trials.
We had a competition at the beginning of the year, and then for myself, that would be Archery Australia. They will put forward the persons who they find suitable to be selected with Paralympics Australia, and then we have to wait. That can sometimes be months. So, I would just keep training. And then at a particular time, I received an email from Archery Australia to advise “Congratulations, you’ve been selected.” So, I saw it. I read it. I looked it more factual than, I guess, in an emotional woo-hoo moment because, as most people know, I’ve been attempting to get a spot on the Paralympic team for many years now. This is since Tokyo and I only just missed out, but it is what it is. You keep training.
And I guess when it comes around to this point of time where I have been selected, it hasn’t sunk in yet because this is a solid six years of work. I had been training since 2016, which is a few more years, but it’s just a constant training hard and fine-tuning your form and process, and it hasn’t kicked in as yet. Somebody mentioned to me it might kick in when you hit the Paralympic Village in Paris. So, as exciting as it is, I’m still training hard. I still have a job to do.
Jeremy Henderson:
How have your family and your friends reacted to your selection?
Ameera Lee:
They’re very excited. They’re very excited to the point where I was saying, “Well, just tone it down a notch please, because I still have a job to do. I still have training.” I guess, in terms of archery, if you have swimming, soccer, all those high adrenaline sports, when they have the big crowds, it becomes benefit of you having all that crowd, that interaction or that excitement, and then that adrenaline kicks in. It has the reverse effect in terms of archery because you really need to stay on a neutral, calm ground because the adrenaline can impact if you’re shooting. And shooting or archery, those types of sports, you really have to have a handle of that cool, calm, collectedness.
Jeremy Henderson:
I know we’re only a few days out now from the start of the Olympics, so I guess it’s all becoming much more real for you in terms of the approach of the subsequent Paralympics. Really keen to find out about your archery and how you actually got involved in archery in the first place. Is this a sport you’ve always had an interest in, or is this something you’ve come to later in life?
Ameera Lee:
It’s something I’ve come in later in life. Most of my life, I’ve done weight training and martial arts, Taekwondo. I think I have something like 20 years behind me and Capoeira as well, Brazilian martial arts. My son, I think he was about six or seven, and he used to do swimming at Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre, and they had a sign-up there one day for archery, come and try.
Having a child, you want to try different sports because every child likes different things. And as a parent, you want to find the thing that your child likes because if they love it, they’ll all excel and have fun and enjoy it. So, I said, “Let’s go try it.” We did and my son went in for the, I think it was the student, just a one-day aim for fun. And the archery center said, “As a parent, you can try it with them as well, I thought why not?” So, I tried it and I had the bug pretty quickly, if not that day, and haven’t looked back since. So, that was the start of it.
Jeremy Henderson:
Now, I’m curious to know what archery looks like for you and also how MS, that interplay between your MS and your MS symptoms and performing and succeeding and being successful in archery at the highest level, how do those two come together, I guess?
Ameera Lee:
Okay. So, in terms of competing over the years, I have a tendency to train. As archers, we train in all weather: heat, sun, rain. The only times we won’t shoot for obvious reasons is when there’s lightning or when there’s hail. It’s a bit risky to be standing out there with a metal bow under lightning, so you wouldn’t do that. But I train harder, as hard as I can because at the end of the day when MS kicks in, there’s also another, I guess, symptom that you have, which is extreme fatigue.
So, the thing is I’m very mindful that if I go to an international competition, you can’t afford to have that “I’m bit too tired. Or I’m having this symptom, I can’t shoot, it’s not for me today.” You have to learn and find ways to work around it. So, if I have a release, even in my release aid, if I’m having fine motor skills with my hand on the day, then to me, it’s not acceptable to use that as an excuse that it’s not working because of this. So, I have to find ways to work around it.
And I guess that’s a lot of what I think do in terms of fine motor skills. I mean I had my classification for sports and it was actually picked up. One of the doctors and the physios there, they’re the ones who brought it up and said, “I think you’ve had MS for a lot longer than you realise. You’ve had it so long that you’ve automatically learnt how to work around how to work around your symptoms without even knowing it.”
Jeremy Henderson:
When you’re actually competing, are there any accommodations made at all or is it really… I think I noted, I read somewhere, I think, that you said during international competitions, if there is a break, if you can find time for a power nap or just to rest, you’ll do that. But when you’re actually competing, what kind of flexibility or accommodations are there, if any? Or is it when you’re up and it’s you’re turn to-
Ameera Lee:
To perform and compete.
Jeremy Henderson:
To perform. You have to perform, I guess.
Ameera Lee:
Yes, and you have to be on point at the time. There’s no delaying or saying, “Can we wait 15, 10 minutes?” It doesn’t happen. So, two of the biggest issues, I guess, would be the heat. It’s another because I’m also heat intolerant, so my body can’t regulate temperature, and obviously, the power naps. We’re aware the day before what time I would be shooting. So, say, it’s in the afternoon. The whole team will go to the range. So, that could be the morning that I’ll be at the range whilst other people are shooting on the team.
So, if I’m mindful that I’m shooting, say, one o’clock, I know that my energy levels might drop, so I’ll have lunch and then I’ll find a little spot on the table right where I am and just put my head down for about 15 to 20 minutes just so I know when it is time for me to compete, I’m ready to go. So, that’s one thing.
And the other one is the heat intolerance. So, it’s all good and well when the weather is, I guess, a good temperature, say, between 18 to 24 degrees, but when you have a real extreme heat. In Thailand was probably the hottest that I’ve ever competed in internationally and my face was beetroot red. It was so hot. And we had someone pop out, one of the coaches, and just grabbed me icies. So, in between, I was just consuming a whole lot of slushies just to cool my body temperature because my body needed assistance. But that worked, so it got the job done. And afterwards, I’m really quite fatigued when my body takes that kind of a hit. So, what I do after the competition is just go back to my room and rest.
Jeremy Henderson:
Speaking of that competition, do you know much about your fellow competitors and who are the biggest threats in the field that you’ll be competing against? What do you know about the other people?
Ameera Lee:
In Paris?
Jeremy Henderson:
Yeah, in Paris. Sorry, yes.
Ameera Lee:
Okay. Most of them actually, I think most of them I have competed with or against. And because I’ve been competing internationally since 2018, so I have a good idea of a lot of the competition and some of them were really quite good friends. So, we communicate outside of competition season, share things, but at the end of the day when we’re on the line, we’re still competition. So, we get the change in phase and we’re very serious, and then the second we get off the line, we’re back to mates again.
But everyone has their own abilities, if you will, and everyone has their weaknesses and strengths. I think, at the end of the day in the para competition, it’s just that outright respect because you know people haven’t just had to train hard to get there. They’ve got all of the, I guess, symptoms or issues they’ve had to deal with in terms of their own health. They’re all fighters and they’re all incredible, and there’s that utmost respect. So, as much as I have respect for everyone, at the end of the day on the line, we’re competition.
Jeremy Henderson:
I think you’re a role model for everyone, regardless of whether you’re somebody living with MS or just everyone in Australia in terms of succeeding and striving for excellence in a particular field. And you’re obviously a role model to people living with MS and not being defined by MS or by what you can’t do, but looking at what you can do and do really, really well. How important is that to you?
Ameera Lee:
It’s mind-blowing to me because I’m just me and that’s just who I am, and it’s what I teach my son. No matter what, you give your all. At the end of the day when you’re finished with something or regardless of how you’ve gone, you know you can look back and you’ve tried your best. You’ve given it your all. I guess it’s in terms of perception of how you see success, but at the end of the day, for me, it’s just giving your all. And I have the most respect for anyone who just tries.
Jeremy Henderson:
Ameera, you strike me as somebody who’s very humble. I’m curious when you first started at archery, was there a moment where you thought, “Wow, I’m actually really good at this. I think I could go quite far with archery,” or is it still a surprise that you’re competing on the world stage?
Ameera Lee:
It’s still a surprise. When I first started archery, I was shooting every weekend. I was at the range every weekend because it was good for my wellbeing. Working in the city and being on a range, you had this greenery around you, it’s very relaxing. And the coach who’s now the Australian national coach approached me and he said, “Look, you’re shooting up.” Bear in mind, I was a standing archer back then, so I wasn’t even recognised as a para-archer. Just another individual that was shooting on the range and he said, “We’ve got a B team here. Would you like to join it?” I said, “Sure.”
His next question was, “Where would you like to go with archery?” And I was just someone who was having fun on the range, and I said, “Wherever it takes me,” having no iota that within two years, I’ll be competing internationally. So, I just keep training, improving my process and enjoying the ride, if you will, and very grateful for the opportunities, but it still takes me… Again, it hasn’t sunk in yet that I am competing in the Paralympics, in Paris in less than a month. But as long as I follow process, it’ll be good.
Jeremy Henderson:
Your events, whereabouts do they fall in the overall program and what opportunity will you have to relax and cheer on some of your fellow Australian athletes in other events?
Ameera Lee:
Archery is quite at the beginning. I have to have a look at the schedule again, but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to make the opening ceremony at this point in time because if we’re shooting the next day, then I have to… This is where the sacrifices come in, is I’m competing the day after the opening ceremony. I have to balance out my energy levels. And so, in terms of bright lights, noise, that can also impact my MS as well. In that, regardless, archery is at the beginning, which means I can go and hopefully enjoy watching the rest of Australia compete in the different sports.
Jeremy Henderson:
Excellent. Look, Ameera, thank you very, very much for your time today. We’ll be watching with interest the Paralympics, and we wish you all the best for the competition.
Ameera Lee:
Thank you so much. Thank you for having me today.
Voiceover:
Thanks for listening to The Raw Nerve, the official podcast of MS Australia. To hear more, subscribe to our podcast today at msaustralia.org.au/podcast.
