Join Patty Kikos for an inspiring and heartfelt interview with Sam and Cameron Bloom, the incredible couple behind the touching story of 'Penguin Bloom.' Hear firsthand how a freak accident in Thailand left Sam a paraplegic, and how their lives took an unexpected turn. Discover the magic that unfolded when a young magpie chick with a broken wing entered their lives, helping them heal together. Their journey, beautifully captured in their book and the movie starring Naomi Watts, is a testament to resilience, love, and the extraordinary bond between humans and animals. Don't miss this captivating conversation! GUEST: Sam and Cameron Bloom - https://bloomphotography.com/ SOCIAL MEDIA: Follow The Benevolent Society on Instagram Follow Carer Gateway on Facebook Follow The Benevolent Society on Facebook CREDITS: Host – Patty Kikos Producers – Patty Kikos and John Hresc Sound Engineer – John Hresc GET IN TOUCH: Carer Gateway is proud to offer emotional and practical services and support for carers with the aim of making your life easier. You can call us on 1800 422 737 to find out more about peer support groups, counselling, coaching, online skills courses, tailored support packages, emergency respite, other government supports, as well as tips and information, or visit our online home at www.carergateway.gov.au ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: The Benevolent Society acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.
Join Patty Kikos for an inspiring and heartfelt interview with Sam and Cameron Bloom, the incredible couple behind the touching story of 'Penguin Bloom.' Hear firsthand how a freak accident in Thailand left Sam a paraplegic, and how their lives took an unexpected turn. Discover the magic that unfolded when a young magpie chick with a broken wing entered their lives, helping them heal together. Their journey, beautifully captured in their book and the movie starring Naomi Watts, is a testament to resilience, love, and the extraordinary bond between humans and animals. Don't miss this captivating conversation!
GUEST:
Sam and Cameron Bloom - https://bloomphotography.com/
SOCIAL MEDIA:
Follow The Benevolent Society on Instagram
Follow Carer Gateway on Facebook
Follow The Benevolent Society on Facebook
CREDITS:
Host – Patty Kikos
Producers – Patty Kikos and John Hresc
Sound Engineer – John Hresc
GET IN TOUCH:
Carer Gateway is proud to offer emotional and practical services and support for carers with the aim of making your life easier.
You can call us on 1800 422 737 to find out more about peer support groups, counselling, coaching, online skills courses, tailored support packages, emergency respite, other government supports, as well as tips and information, or visit our online home at www.carergateway.gov.au
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
The Benevolent Society acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.
Patty
Now this question might be too private, so we can skip it over if you like, but what are the biggest ways that your intimacy between each other has changed in the last decade?
Sam
Well, I hate being touched, like, from where I broke my back, kind of around my ribs and stuff, it’s hypersensitive, so yeah, I can’t bare being touched.
Cam
So, I have to cuddle Sam really hard.
Sam
And the only thing that I like is that Cam will massage the top of my back.
Patty
Yeah?
Sam
And that always feels nice
Cam
And she says that that’s the best part of the day
Sam
It is. And I always say, “can you just rub my back?”
Cam
And I just wanna go to sleep {they all giggle}
Sam
Haha I know, and it’s so nice, honestly, it’s the only thing, and actually, this will sound really weird, but it actually used to help with the pain.
Patty
Oh yeah?
Sam
It used to make my feet, not as intense, the fire wasn’t as intense.
Cam
Still?
Sam
Probably not as much now. You’ve lost your touch. But no it used to really help.
Patty {laughing}
That’s a bit rough “you’ve lost your touch”
Sam
I know, right? So, as you can imagine, a lot of things have changed
Cam
Hopefully, I’ll get my touch back..
----
Billy
From the Carer Gateway at the Benevolent Society, we welcome you to, Carer Conversations with your host Patty Kikos.
The Care Gateway is the Australian Government national care hub and provides reliable services, support and advice especially for carers.
This podcast is where we share interviews with guests that have specialized knowledge to help support carers to look after their emotional, mental and physical well-being.
We are recording on Aboriginal country, on lands which were never ceded. We acknowledge the traditional custodians and cultural knowledge holders of these lands and waters. We pay our respects to Aboriginal elders, past and present.
Always was, always will be.
---
Patty
Welcome to our fabulous listeners. Boy, do I have a treat for you today. My guests are not live in the studio with me, so we're recording online, in case you're wondering why the sound quality isn't as quiet as it normally is.
Have you ever heard of the book or the movie starring Naomi Watts called Penguin Bloom? Well, it's all about Sam Bloom and how in the blink of an eye her life changed forever. Sam had everything she had always dreamed of. Sam had everything she had always dreamed of. She'd travelled extensively, fulfilled her childhood dream of becoming a nurse, and was a happily married mother of 3 young boys.
In 2013, without warming without warning, the dream turned into a nightmare during a family holiday in Thailand, Sam fell through a rotten balcony railing and crashed 6 metres onto the concrete below. Lucky to be alive, she'd suffered devastating injuries, including severe damage to her spinal cord that left her paralysed from the chest down. Sam mourned the loss of her previously active life and physical abilities. She also experienced, and still experiences extraordinary nerve pain.
11 years have passed, and Sam will look anyone square in the eye, and say she would do anything to have her old life back and be able to walk instead of relying on a wheelchair. Since her accident, her husband Cameron Bloom, has been an unwavering source of support by her side, including a beautiful magpie chick that came to stay and helped the whole family on their healing journey.
Sam's remarkable recovery and renewed sense of purpose was found through taking up competitive paracanoeing and more recently now, a 3 times world champion, Para surfer. Today we get to meet both of them. Hello Sam. Hello Cam.
Sam
Hi, Patty.
Cameron
Hey, Patty
Patty
Sam, I want to get to know a little bit about your history. Tell me about you. You're 10 years old. Describe a day in your life. Where are you? Who do you live with? And what do you love doing?
Sam
Well, I grew up on Bilgola Beach in the Northern Beaches of Sydney. Who was I? I've always been a tomboy actually, so I've always loved it. I had a BMX bike. A rode a boogie board a lot at the time I didn't ride a proper surfboard. I used to always go boogie boarding down at Bilgola Beach, which is where I lived. Yeah, I was a pretty active kid.
Patty
Yeah, Sam and his book described you as being the tomboy and one of the things he loves about you. I had a PK Ripper. I had a BMX as well, but mine was a PK Ripper. {Sam laughs}
Cam, you realised early on what you wanted to do following high school, how did you know and what did you do exactly.
Cameron
I think it was when my dad gave me his waterproof camera when I was maybe 13 and I was a surfer like Sam and I took pictures in the water of my friends surfing and I just knew then that I would love to be a photographer. And then we went travelling to Bali when I was probably in year 9 and I took a portrait of a Balinese woman and I just knew that at that moment, that shooting people or taking pictures of people I knew I really wanted to be a photographer.
Patty
Penguin Bloom, the book was so beautifully illustrated with your photographs. And when did you both discover that you loved surfing?
Sam
Like I said, when I was in primary school, I used to always ride my boogie board, and then I when I was, it must’ve been in year seven or eight, and there were these 2 guys and they were so cool that they almost looked like rockabillies. It was like they straight out of the 50s. And this one guy, Anthony had a Malibu. And I remember buying it off him for $50. And I thought it was like the coolest board. It was this massive red and yellow striped board. I don’t even know how big it was, and it had a massive yellow green Finn.
Patty
Do you still have it?
Sam
No, I don't even know where that would have gone.
Patty
Oh.
Sam
It got pretty dinged.
Cameron
Council cleanup.
Sam
Council cleanup. I think. Yeah. You know. Yeah. So, because I would like, hang out with the guys who I went to school with, and we would all go surfing and they would want to borrow my board.
Patty
Yeah.
Cameron
You were a cool cat.
Sam
No, no, no. It’s because I had a Mal and they only rode short boards.
Patty
Well, fast forward many years later, 11 years ago this year, you have 3 boys after a stint living in the inner west, you moved back to the northern beaches. So many of your dreams had already come true Sam.
You'd experienced a career as a nurse. Cam, you as a photographer, your combined passion of travel was something you wanted to extend to your 3 very active boys, who at the time were younger, so Ollie was 7. Noah was 9, Ruben was 10.
You travelled to Thailand and Sam did something she'd done hundreds if not thousands of times before. She leaned on a railing at the hotel. It's just that this one had dry rot, and she fell 6 metres down. Now, Sam, you have said that it took several years for you to piece those memories together. What happened next?
Sam
You mean in Thailand?
Patty
Yeah. What you can remember.
Sam
Uh, well, I don't remember going up the stairs. I don't remember being in the ambulance. I think my first memory was when my mum and my sister turned up. They flew over to Thailand and I remember saying, “what are you guys doing here?” I just thought that was so weird. “Like, why are you in Thailand?”
Patty
So, you'd already been in the hospital for a few days for them to be able to come over?
Sam
Yeah, yeah.
Cameron
This is after the operation, no.
Sam
No, I don't think so. No, because that was my first memory and I remember saying to mum, “I wanna get up. I wanna get up.” she said strap me onto his spinal cord and I remember having this like a strap it across my chest and it was quite it was scratching me and I just remember saying, “I want to get up, this is really hurting.” And the second memory...
Patty
And that strap was to keep you still so that you would not move, right?
Sam
Yeah. And then my second memory was being in theatre, but I didn't actually know I was in theatre. So, I remember seeing them pull my T-shirt up because I had, like quite a bright T shirt on. It was like this aqua t shirt and then I saw them cut that off and then they were putting a central line in my neck. I remember that really hurt. And I was gripping onto the sheet and then the next thing I saw was just that mask come down over my face and that was it.
Patty
That would have been surreal, like a dream.
Sam
Yeah, but I didn't know what was happening.
Patty
No, you wouldn't have.
Cameron
Sam was on a lot of drugs.
Sam
Yeah! Because I hit my head when I fell. I hit my head. That's right. So, I had like bleeds. So, that was my main focus, actually. Just the headaches they were so intense.
Patty
And at that stage, were either of you thinking, oh, no, I hope she doesn't have a brain injury because she hit her head.
Cameron
I did!
Sam
You would have been for sure.
Cameron
Probably not at that stage, but earlier on when Sam obviously fell and hit her head. I definitely thought that, you know, Sam would maybe become a vegetable or something.
Sam
Thanks
Cameron
No, really.
Patty
Yeah. I would have felt the same if I saw my loved one hit the ground so hard.
Sam
Yeah.
Cameron
That the doctors had done an MRI of Sam's head at that point, and the bleeding on the brain was not severe, so they just said that the swelling would probably go down.
Patty
And it did. I mean, Cam you witness the trauma. Initially, you thought that there might be brain damage. Like we've just said, and both of you have joked that Sam is hard headed, which of course has a double meaning here. You had to look after the boys who also saw their mum fall and bleed as well as her mum and sister travel to Thailand. I mean, what was going through your head?
Cameron
Many things. Obviously the focus was, you know on Sam. So we just wanted to make sure that she got the best medical care in Thailand. But there are so many conflicting sort of moments that pull you in lots of different directions. But you know, I had my family calling me to check. You know if Sam's OK. You know, if we need anything, blah blah. And I like Sam. I had my brother and sister come over to support us and Sam's best friend, Bronwyn came over as well, so we did have a lot of support, which was fantastic.
Patty
Quick question, just for the timeline sake, how long were you in Thailand before Sam was flown to Australia?
Both
Three weeks.
Cameron
Yeah. It's 11 years now, but there are moments of, you know, intensity in all of those three weeks and. But it's a, it's a timeline and it's a progression and so, the immediate danger of, you know, “Will Sam survive?” passes and then you move on to the next set of challenges and the next sort of hurdles to overcome. And so, you just keep shifting your focus on to what's important at that time.
Patty
And the most priority. Yeah. Sam, you said that you never found out that you would never walk again till you came back to Australia and had another MRI. The doctor who told you was blunt. In fact, you've described him as having a terrible bedside manner. If he was sitting next to you today and asked you for some feedback, what would you say?
Sam
I would just say you just need he just needed to show a little bit more compassion. You know, like he told me the one thing that I never, ever wanted to hear. Like before the accident I guess I identified myself as being pretty sporty and pretty active and to have that taken away, it was just like complete loss of identity, and I wasn't the same person. So yeah, I think you just should have shown a little bit more empathy.
I mean literally he just said no, you won't. I was just like, I just, I pulled the sheet over my head and just burst into tears and I never saw him.
I wouldn't even, if I saw him now, I probably wouldn't even recognise him. But yeah, just a little bit of compassion would have gone a long. Anda little bit of hope and I don't mean that he should have said, “yeah, you'll be fine and you'll get better.” I liked his honesty, but he just could’ve come...
Patty
That lack of kindness would have cut you like a knife. Yeah, I mean, Sam, you were a nurse, so you were very familiar with spinal cord injuries. But then you experienced the baptism of fire, of having one yourself. And there are threekey things I'd really love to chat to you about regarding this. So, one is your very clear and distinct boundary of only wanting Cam the boys, your mum and your sister to come to visit you only.
Was this something that was difficult to implement when potentially many other friends and family members wanted to reach out and help? Because it's times like this when you're experienced an inordinate amount of pain, you've got no resilience to deal with well meaning, yet inappropriate comments from people who've got no idea what you're going through and are uncomfortable with the reality of how horrendous your situation is.
Sam
Yeah, I did push a lot of people away, but nurses were fantastic, though. A couple of my friends would turn up and the nurses would come in and say, “oh, someone's here, do you want them to come in?” and I'd say, “no”, and I do feel really bad, but I was not in a good headspace to like, have a conversation with people, so that's why I only wanted like my family to come and see me.
I mean, if I did see a couple of girls from my soccer team after a while and that was fine. But you know, I didn't want everybody coming to see me anyway. I was embarrassed, I was stuck in bed. I was not in a good headspace and I was in a lot of pain.
Patty
You were processing and you were in a lot of pain. You're roomie at Royal North Shore Hospital was Abdul. You've spoken about him, and he'd had a car accident and became a quadriplegic at 17. You navigated some of that initial disproportionate pain together. He then went on to mentor your son, Ruben. Tell us about that beautiful special bond and relationship.
Sam
Yeah, Abdul was great because, we were like roommates I guess you could say for nearly 3 months, and I don't know. I just remember talking to him.
Cameron
It was often through the curtain.
Sam
Yep through the curtain. I was sustaining pressure injuries from Thailand, so I was either on my left side or my right side. And so half time I would have my back towards Abdul. I don't know. There's something about it. It is just really nice to talk to someone who is also in a similar situation, obviously he was a lot younger.
Patty
Still, but you were both navigating the worst thing that had ever happened in both your respective lives.
Sam
Yeah, I loved having Abdul like, just to chat to. I remember one day it was so sad and I think he handled it so well. It was his 18th birthday and you know all the doctor and the nurses were fantastic. They come in and, you know, “happy birthday, Abdul”. And it was such a big deal because you turned 18. But it was just so, so heartbreaking. It's like this guy's just turned 18 and he's stuck in a bed in Royal North Shore and he’s a quadraplegic.
Cameron
And getting back to your question, though. Ruben would walk around the curtain and spend time with Abdul and they did bond. Ruben was, you know, so young at the time and he would just listen to Abdul. Ruben was a mad talker and I think probably Abdul enjoyed his company as well, but I think he had a lot of wisdom for his young age and he just seemed to connect on this really beautiful level with Ruben which was which was great.
Patty
You've been very honest about how you wished you had died. There was a very dark period for you when you've said that you wish you had not lived. And what I love about you now many years later, is that you don't sugarcoat your accident and say things like, “ohh, I'm so grateful cause I've discovered this about my life.”
If anything, you're quite vocal about wishing that this had never happened to you. How do you deal with the everyday neuropathic pain? I mean, you exercise, you keep busy and distracted. And it's a nerve thing, so nothing can actually get rid of this pain. It's quite similar to when amputees feel that limb that they no longer have. It's actually quite a cruel injury.
Sam
Yeah, it's a very cruel injury because, man, you can come and burn my leg or stab me. And I would never know. But yeah, I ‘m in constant pain. It's just like being on fire all the time or sitting in stinging metals. That's what it feels like constantly. And so, like you said, I just try and keep distracted because then you don't focus on the pain.
But I mean, I know if I'm if I'm bored or stuck at home, then that's the first thing I think of, like, “ohh my God, my bum's on fire, my feet are on fire!” and then you just focus on the pain and that doesn't help.
Yeah. No, it's annoying. It's so annoying. Not everybody has the neuropathic pain. Some people are pretty lucky, and don't experience it.
Patty
What determines who experiences it and who doesn't. Is it just the luck of the draw?
Sam
Yeah, its just luck.
Cameron
Yeah it's random.
Sam
Yeah, but I think. I had it from the from the time. I definitely remember having it in Bangkok because I thought it was always up in my shoulder blade, my right shoulder blade and I thought maybe when I'd fallen and I'd broken it.
Cameron
But that wouldn't have been neuropathic pain then.
Sam
Yeah, it was. It was so hot. It was just fire. But I didn't know what it was. See, I said it's been there the whole time. And yeah, it drives you crazy sometimes. And some days, I'm like, oh, my God. Like, just give me a break.
Cameron
And it and it wears you down.
Sam
It does. It's actually quite exhausting I think.
Patty
It's insidious because it doesn't stop.
Sam
Exactly! I find it quite exhausting. It's like, come on. Just give me a little break so I'm not in pain all the time.
Patty
Cam, the darkness that Sam felt was possibly like what many refer to as the dark night of the soul. She didn't want to see anyone she didn't want anyone to see her like she was on many occasions she no longer wanted to be here. And Cam, you'd continuously tell her how much you and the boys loved her and needed her, and slowly she came back. How did you cope with trying to make sure Sam got the care she needed in Thailand when it first happened? And then how did you keep going when you were back in Australia and Sam was literally losing the will to live? What helped you keep fighting?
Cameron
Lots of questions there. It was difficult to navigate the process in Thailand, a lot of it is kind of out of your control.
Patty
In a foreign country with a foreign language.
Cameron
Yeah. The small amount of input that you do have, you try to make the decisions that, I guess make the most sense at the time, so I was relying on travel insurance. Dialogue with, you know, medical people back home. Obviously, family members helped as well during that time, so um, yeah, I think, I mean we're both very fortunate that the medical system in Thailand is actually very good.
So, Sam ended up in a in a fabulous hospital in Bangkok before being flown home. So yeah, the focus was always on Sam's wellbeing. By focusing on Sam's health and wellbeing and having her best interest at heart, then we knew that we would slowly get her back.
Patty
When you took Sam home from the hospital. I mean, she was broken. She was distraught. Your home needed to be renovated to accommodate her wheelchair and her new height, even though you always called her short. And even though this happened, how did you navigate that?
Cameron
Again, we called on some friends who were builders, and I was thinking about it this morning actually. You know who was here. We had like three builders help come in and tear this place apart. We turned the garage into another bedroom. We smashed down the bathroom and made it all open and fixed that.
The kitchen needed to be redone. The bench heights so Sam could get under. So, there were, you know, people advising me, like OT's and things like that. And we were just trying to finish everything for you know when Sam came home. But it was not like it was just a, you know Sam hadn’t been home on weekends during those last few months while Sam was in hospital. She would be allowed to come home to stay.
Patty
Ohh for weekends at a time and even overnight?
Sam
I think I did. Towards the end, I think I stayed over, yeah.
Cameron
There was a gradual process of, you know, being able to let the prisoner come back home and we knew during those moments, what we needed to do
Patty
That would have been helpful. Actually, a transition of like “ohh I never thought of that. That might need to be redone as well that.”
Cameron
Exactly. There were things like that and then it was kind of also the slow realisation that ohh ****, this is really going to be hard.
And that was by far the the toughest time when they said “Sam, see you later. You're off home.” Yeah, we all wanted her to come home, obviously. We thought Sam would be a lot happier, but.
Patty
That was another journey. That was another chapter of darkness, wasn't it?
Sam
Yeah, exactly.
Patty
Well, an unexpected healer came into your life, one that is very special and revered, if not sometimes misunderstood, in Australia, one that can feed on Mother Earth and fly high to the heavens in the sky. It was a magpie that your boys named Penguin, whose broken wings symbolised Sam's feeling of being broken at the time.
Did the entrance of Penguin in your lives, make a profound difference? Because she was a baby.
Sam
Yeah. She did. She changed everything when we brought it home. Like you said, she was so tiny, and she was so cute. And what I liked is it took all the focus off me.
Patty
Ahh.
Sam
You know, everybody put all their energy into Penguin, which I loved because I don't like being centre of attention.
Cameron
Sam was broken and kind of obviously fragile, but Penguin was, needed more attention than Sam, put it that way.
Sam
Yeah. So, I loved that, yeah.
Patty
What inspired you to write a book and then it obviously became a successful movie starring Australia's very own Naomi Watts? Was the book initially for Sam, or was it for the world? (With your beautifully illustrated photographs I've got to say.)
Cameron
I just gradually, as you know, you mentioned before, I'm a photographer. So, I just kept taking pictures of Penguin and we didn't know how long Penguin was gonna be with us.
Patty
Of course.
Cameron
There's just so many beautiful moments of times where she would be, you know, cuddling up to Sam or the boys or exploring in the garden. So, I just kept documenting and then eventually there was an article that came out in.
Sam
No share how it started Instagram.
Cameron
Well, yeah, sure, sorry. Instagram became a platform to share all these images.
Patty
That's how I discovered Penguin.
Cameron
Yeah. So that obviously grew to, um, I don't know how many, but eventually there was an article that came out online and then it kind of went a bit crazy.
Sam
Yeah, we have no intention of writing a book.
Cameron
No, not at all.
Sam
It was just that we started the Instagram account for a bit of fun and then it just went a liuttle crazy.
Patty
Yeah, for anyone who doesn't have it. It's actually a beautiful coffee table book. It's very inspirational. It's gorgeous.
Cameron
We’re very lucky, the book became a wonderful way to share Sam's journey. And thanks to Bradley Trevor Grieve who wrote the book.
He spent a year, over a year working with us, piecing it together all those memories, you know from the boys, from myself and Sam. And it's yeah, a love story. And that's what we love. And I think that's what people resonate with.
Patty
They definitely connect to that. Yeah. Sam, you tried to surf after the accident, but it didn't feel good as you were still getting used to what you would no longer do or could no longer do. And it took five years to take up para surfing. And you've now won many competition, which speaks so much of your tenacity, resilience and determination. How is that going now? Because you're also para canoeing!
Sam {giggles}
Really well. Yeah. No, I just got back from Hawaii on Sunday.
Patty
How did that go?
Sam
Yeah good, I won!
Patty
Ohh congratulations!
Sam
Thank you! The competitions I go in, there's four competitions throughout the year, so we had the first one in Byron Bay in March and then Hawaii just now and then next month we go to Costa Rica.
Patty
Oh my goodness.
Sam
And then there's one more in in California, which I'm not going to go to that one, but yeah, so if I win next month in Costa Rica, then I'll become a four time world champion.
Because it goes off all your points and whoever wins obviously gets more points. So yeah, it's really fun.
Patty
Congratulations. I'm rooting for you!
Sam {giggles}
Thank you.
Patty
So, your rehab might be officially over, but when Sam sleeps, Cam needs to turn her over threetimes before dawn to maintain her circulation. Now this question might be too private, so we can skip it over if you like. But what are the biggest ways that your intimacy between each other has changed in the last decade?
Sam
Well, I hate being touched, like, from where I broke my back, kind of around my ribs and stuff, it’s hypersensitive, so yeah, I can’t bare being touched.
Cam
So, I have to cuddle Sam really hard.
Sam
And the only thing that I like is that Cam will massage the top of my back.
Patty
Yeah?
Sam
And that always feels nice
Cam
And she says that that’s the best part of the day
Sam
It is. And I always say, “can you just rub my back?”
Cam
And I just wanna go to sleep {they all giggle}
Sam
Haha I know, and it’s so nice, honestly, it’s the only thing, and actually, this will sound really weird, but it actually used to help with the pain.
Patty
Oh yeah?
Sam
It used to make my feet not as intense, the fire wasn’t as intense.
Cam
Still?
Sam
Probably not as much now. You’ve lost your touch. But no, it used to really help
Patty {laughing}
That’s a bit rough “you’ve lost your touch”
Sam
I know, right? So, as you can imagine, a lot of things have changed
Cam
Hopefully, I’ll get my touch back..
Patty
Well, post-accident, Sam, you also got into competitive canoeing . You may need to be lifted in and out of the water, but once you pick up that paddle, you're in control of your direction again, aren't you? How does that feel?
Sam
Yeah. It’s so nice. It was awesome. Is this like freedom on the water? Freedom, because I wasn't in the wheelchair and I was just like, you know, as you can imagine, surrounded by nature and it was. Just beautiful.
Patty
I can imagine how healing it would be.
Sam
Yeah, it was when I first started kayaking, I'd only paddled on Saturday morning, but it was my favourite time of the week and it again helped with the pain.
Patty
Travelling. You both still have a voracious passion for travelling and have gone to amazing places like Africa. How can the world improve in terms of accessibility when travelling in airports in hotels because you've both done a lot of work with the building company and it's an ongoing process, is it called Kushman and Wakefield?
Both
Yeah.
Patty
And you show them things like what they think this is accessible, but actually, I can't open this door and they take your feedback on, don't they?
Cameron
They did in that particular paper we worked with them on. And it was just improving the building codes which are obviously set and although they may technically have something that's accessible in the building code, it doesn't mean that it is.
Patty
Yes.
Cameron
So, we are bringing attention to those kinds of things that affect many people living with a disability and obviously access is a huge part of someone's enjoyment when travelling and being able to get inside a hotel door without having to rely on someone else.
Sam
For it to open for you.
Patty
Now neither of you are fans of been asked for advice, and I can appreciate that. But if you did have one profound learning that you could share with our audience, who are carers for their loved ones, whether it's kooky or practical, what would you say to them?
Cameron
Well, for me, nature has been the biggest benefit to escape Sam, when I needed to escape Sam.
Sam {all laugh}
Which was quite often.
Cameron
Ohh yeah, so just being able to whether it be to go for a walk in the bush or have a swim, that is very healing and Penguin was a big part of that initially, but when she flew away, obviously, my love for surfing and tings like that, doing those sorts of things has helped a lot.
But you know, that's what works for me, and it may not be the answer. There aremany people who care for people who can't get away because they maybe need to be there all the time.
Patty
True that.
Cameron
So, I'm lucky Sam still is, you know, somewhat independent and I can do my own thing.
Sam
I would say to a carer if the person they're looking after is a bit grumpy or comes across as a bit mean, don't take it personally.
Cameron
Sam's not talking about herself at all.
Sam {all laugh}
Yes, I am. But you know what I mean. Like, you think the person that they're caring for, they probably just experienced the most traumatic, horrible event, or whatever it is in their life, and they're going to be angry. And if they're angry towards the person who's kind of trying to help them, don't take it personally.
Cameron
I don’t
Sam
Good!
Patty
All right, let's do some rapid fire wrap up questions. Have you gone a day without swearing recently? If so, how long?
Sam
No, me probably not. I think I swear more since my accident. I never used to swear as much, but now I really do.
Patty
Can either of you actually fold a fitted sheet? And if you can, how did you learn?
Sam
No
Cameron
Yes
Sam
No, we don't!
Cameron
I do!
Sam
No, you do NOT!
Cameron
I do. I go like this. I roll it up and then I throw it in the cupboard.
Sam
And I used to do the same. I would just literally roll it up and stick it in the cupboard.
Cameron
No, you roll it, you don't fold it, you roll it.
Sam
No.
Cameron {all laugh}
OK.
Patty
That is a wrap! Sam and Cam, thanks so much for sharing your story so generously. Our carers that have already met you are so inspired by your strength and your raw honesty.
And I have to say one of the beautiful quotes, and there were many in your book is, “But she lived. When so many others might have died, and Penguin fell from the heavens when we needed her most. My heart tells me that if these were not miracles, then the Bloom family is still blessed beyond reason.”
We'll also be sure to include Cam’s website in our bio and show notes, and if this interview was helpful or inspiring to you or someone you know, please don't hesitate to like or subscribe.
But if you could leave us a five-star review, that ensures we get to the people that need this information the most, and if this is something you're navigating and finding difficult right now, we're sending you so much love. Know that we offer many workshops that can help you feel supported whenever you're ready. Till next time, take good care of yourself.
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Billy:
If you are caring for a relative or a friend who has a disability, a mental health condition, a life limiting health or medical condition.
Or they are frail because they're getting older. Please contact us at Carer Gateway on 1800 422 737, or look us up on www.carergateway.gov.au
And if you are a carer, you're allowed to take time to look after yourself. You are just as important as the person you take care of.