Marinda Jones refuses to yield to tetraplegia. Photo / Warren Buckland
Marinda Jones refuses to yield to tetraplegia. Photo / Warren Buckland
Marinda Jones went to the supermarket the other day.
“And I was raging when I got home. My husband said ‘what’s wrong?’ And I said ‘if anyone else tells me how amazing I am, I’m going to throw something at them’.
“That’s what someone said to me while I waspushing my trolley. They said ‘what have I got to complain about, you’re so amazing’.
“And I said ‘how? Because I’m doing my groceries’? I’m just trying to live.
“Everyone calls me inspiring and that frustrates me, because I’m not. How am I inspiring? I’m just trying to get on with my life.”
That story seems the best way to introduce one of the most fiercely determined Hawke’s Bay women you’ll ever meet.
Jones is driven in ways few of us will ever understand.
She knows she’s a bit full on, but it’s fierce determination that has kept her alive in the almost 24 years since a horse-riding accident left her a tetraplegic.
Once upon a time, riding equestrian at the Olympic Games was her dream. Now she hopes to be a Paralympian but — as proud and stubborn as she is — Jones needs people’s help.
“Some days are flipping hard, but what enables me to cope is exercise and challenging myself. If I didn’t have exercise I’d be in a box to be quite honest, because I don’t do well depression-wise if I’m not moving and not challenging myself,’’ Jones said.
Wheelchair rugby helped fill the void for 15 years, but now it’s para badminton. Jones might be the only tetraplegic in the sport, but it hasn’t stopped her becoming the No.2- ranked player in Oceania.
Marinda Jones has set up a Givealittle page to raise funds to pay for a support person to go with her to overseas badminton tournaments. Photo / Warren Buckland
Nor pulling herself up from two years of 24-hour care to get moving, get married and become a mother of two.
“I’ve actually been longer in a chair now than I was walking and you can’t look back. Everyone’s like ‘if only’, but you can’t change it.
“I try to be mum. They don’t know any different. Well, they do know inside the house that things are a bit different, but I still be mum and still take them everywhere and still do everything.’’
If Jones is to qualify for the Paralympics, she needs to compete internationally.
She qualified for last year’s world championships but, because of health and financial issues, reluctantly declined the invitation.
“Because of the level of my injury, I don’t work. I did before I had kids, but I ended up in hospital all the time.
“I suffer depression and anxiety and I’m better if I’m moving, so my husband [Glenn] said my job is to look after myself.
“Because I’m so capable, people don’t realise that I’ve still got a high-level injury. I still have health issues because internally we don’t work, we’re paralysed.
“People see the external, but our bowel and our bladder don’t work.’’
It was a severe bowel infection that kept Jones from last year’s world championships, for which she admits she was driving herself too hard.
“I was getting up at stupid o’clock to get my bowel clears done. Like I was getting up at 2am.’’
Jones trains six days a week, incorporating three sessions with her strength and conditioning coach, three with her badminton coach and four-or-five-hour pushing sessions in her $8000 wheelchair.
Badminton is hard for her. Before her accident, as an 18-year-old, Jones had been right-handed. Only that arm and hand don’t really function any more, so she’s had to learn to play with her left.
From coaching to court hire, Jones pays for the lot, along with her planned world championship qualification tournaments in Thailand, Australia, Japan and Dubai this year.
That’s pricey enough, but Jones will also have to fund a support person to accompany her. Planes, airports and motels are hard enough for most of us to negotiate, without being paralysed.
Matches themselves can be gruelling for Jones too.
“My anxiety side says I’m not good enough, so I doubt myself. My brain is on fire before matches.’’
Equally, that’s why Jones does it. She could be bedridden, she could rely on medication to quell the constant nerve pain, but she’s striving to be the best version of herself that she can.
Jones might never be a world champion, but the opponents she’s fighting most are herself and her injury. It’s the only way she knows to keep herself alive.
