Since the tumultuous social media pile-on, the family have been putting their lives back together and Yarraka says the good outcomes have outweighed the bad. The family declined to take the trip to Disneyland and in consultation with Williams, the money has been split between six charities including Dwarfism Awareness Australia and the Balanu Foundation.Ī small amount has been kept in trust for Quaden. Williams' campaign raised about $630,000. "We're happy to just put that behind us and move on with the rest of our lives," Yarraka says. "I now know those comments were hurtful and untrue," she tweeted. The matter was settled and Devine apologised on September 19.
"It's really concerning that you have high-profile people that don't do their due diligence because a lot of people obviously believed her," Yarraka says.Ī request for an apology was rejected and Yarraka's legal team proceeded with a defamation case. Newscorp columnist Miranda Devine stepped into the fray and retweeted some of the scamming claims. Yarraka and Quaden Bayles have triumphed over the trolls. It was a really big crowd saying my name and I got a bit, like, shy," he says. "It was fun and I wanted to run with them, but I didn't get to because they thought I said to walk out with them, but I said run. A few days later, Quaden would lead the All Stars onto the field in a blaze of publicity. Messages of support came from all over the world - Hugh Jackman, Jonathan Thurston and the Indigenous All Stars rugby league team among them. And I am like, 'What the hell have I done?'," Yarraka says. Feeling helpless, Yarraka filmed his distress and posted it on Facebook Live.
Quaden was so upset he would not allow his Mum to comfort him. "There's nothing quite like the pain that you feel when it's not you that's being ridiculed, but it's your child," family friend Nicola Joseph says. "I want to be a really good NBA player and like my cousin Biwali, he's in Hawaii playing NBA college."Ī still from the viral video shows Quaden in tears. "I'm good at AFL, football and basketball," Quaden says. "He has the best ball skills of anyone I've ever worked with," Dr Ireland says. Queensland Children's Hospital physiotherapist Penny Ireland says Quaden has a huge drive to problem solve. He goes into respiratory failure every time he falls asleep and needs a machine to help him breathe.īut despite these challenges, he loves his sport. Quaden needed multiple hospital visits and surgery for a compressed spine. He looked perfect to me and he still does," she says. "I was telling myself that the doctors had gotten his diagnosis wrong. It would tear their relationship apart and they separated when Quaden was two-and-a-half. While Quaden Senior was researching online, Yarraka retreated into denial. Yarraka admits she was in denial about Quaden's diagnosis when he was a baby. Major spinal surgery is one of the many operations Quaden has endured. The pain of aching bones, the exhaustion of trying to keep up when you have shorter limbs, the tears, the potentially fatal breathing difficulties, the early onset arthritis, like an old man trapped in a little boy's body. The detractors don't see the effort it takes for Quaden Bayles to get out of bed each morning. "Our parents taught us to fight for what we believe in and to raise our children to be proud of who they are," Yarraka says.
Suicide Call Back Service on 1300 659 467īut this Aboriginal single mother comes from a long line of human rights activists and she would push back with strength.It would expose them to the darkest corners of the internet where they would be viciously trolled. They would see the best and the worst of humanity. And the family are still dealing with the repercussions of making that one moment of their life public. Yarraka concedes that in isolation the incident was mild, but it was a tipping point for Quaden. ( Instagram: it made him feel was amplified to tens of millions of people around the world in February when in a moment of unbearable pain, his mother Yarraka posted a Facebook video of Quaden crying in despair after he had been bullied and laughed at in school because of his short stature. Quaden wants the world to know he's just like other nine year-olds.
0 kommentar(er)
