Team

Experience & Activities

Sue Fry was told by her physiotherapy lecturer that if she wanted to do community work one day, she best hop on a plane to Australia as there were no such jobs going in South Africa.

Fast forward to the present day and Sue not only remains a proud citizen of the republic but helps people in even the remotest outposts.

“I love being able to make a difference in the lives of people who the world has forgotten,” she says.

Clients not patients

The Worcester professional, who counts three children, four grandchildren, two cats, a pair of dogs, three cows and “lots of bees” among her family, is also a trainer for Rehab Skills Lab.

For her, it is essential that trainees understand that they work with clients who are “potentially empowered people with disabilities but who are not helpless patients”.

Sue says seating is an essential part of rehabilitation and to maximise clients’ potential trainers need to be able to prescribe them the most appropriate devices possible.

Stories to tell

It stands to reason that in her decades-long career she picked up many beautiful stories. Funny ones, too.

“At a wheelchair training event in Kenya, one of the practical groups were discussing what wheelchair skills training their teenage client needed,” she recalls.

“They looked up to see him in a full wheelie, spinning his new wheelchair at a dizzy speed. The discussion changed to what could he teach them!”

In her spare time Sue makes the most of living on a farm, growing vegetables, doing beekeeping, making cheese and walking in the mountains with her dogs.