Tetraplegic graduates against all odds

Lola Fusitu'a has a strong team on her side in her daughters together with her three grandchildren. Photo / Dean Purcell

People laughed at Lola Fusitu'a when she said she wanted to give university a whirl.

Seventeen years had passed since she left high school, no one in her family had a degree and she was being paralysed from the neck down.

But after four years' study, the tetraplegic mother of three from Waiuku holds a master of business with honours from Auckland University of Technology.

Ms Fusitu'a was 33 and married with three young daughters when a drunk driver ploughed into her vehicle in 1995, leaving her paralysed.

At 36 she began studying for a bachelor of business and accounting by correspondence through the Open Polytechnic. She passed despite her husband thinking she was "too old" to start studying, and then decided to do a master's degree at AUT.

Most of her work was completed at home via a computer programme that recorded her answers as she spoke. This system recorded her final assignment - a 33,000-word dissertation on taxation.

Living in a busy home with her father, daughters and three grand-children meant Ms Fusitu'a had to lock herself in a room with her computer to concentrate.

Once a week one of her daughters drove her from Waiuku to her night class in the city. Ms Fusitu'a's carer, who is also her niece, accompanied her to classes and would warn lecturers when she was on the verge of fainting due to a lack of fresh air.

Among the physical challenges Ms Fusitu'a had to overcome every day was her breathing - she breathes through her stomach as both her lungs are dysfunctional.

Among the emotional challenges she crossed was separating from and then divorcing her husband last year.

And then there were the technical challenges, such as computers being attacked with viruses.

But Mrs Fusitu'a managed to prove herself right and her critics wrong and last week celebrated her graduation with a meal at the Sky Tower's restaurant.

She hopes to set up a business as a tax consultant from home, and is working towards paying off her $54,000 student loan.

And now her second daughter has decided to study at Manukau Institute of Technology - the second member of the family to give tertiary education a go.