Jessie's Story
Jessie Maree Wadly, born 28th September 1992.
At the young age of 9 months Jess was trapped in a car that caught alight along with her two older siblings. Tasmanian hospitals were unable to cope with such a tragedy so therefore they were flown to Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital and placed in a drug induced coma. Jess had burns to 37% of her body. She has lost 3.5 fingers on her left hand, 90% of her hair and has severe facial scarring. Melbourne was to become home for the next few months as the kids fought a long hard battle to stay with us. Jessie was the first of the children to return to Tasmania in the September of ‘93 just two weeks before her 1st birthday. She returned to live with her uncle and aunty as her parents were still in Melbourne with her siblings. Many return trips were had to Melbourne until her care was transferred to Hobart. Jess remained with her aunt and uncle who went on to be known as mum and dad. It has not been an easy ride as there has been endless operations to endure, let alone the public ignorance and constant bullying. Jess first learnt about the KIDS Foundation Burns Survivors Network whilst watching a current affair program one evening. She then attended one of Jason McCartney’s inspirational talks and spoke to him one on one. Jason’s wife Nerissa worked for the foundation therefore the wheels started turning. We attended our first Burns camp in November 2005. Upon arrival we felt truly out of our comfort zone. Then we were introduced to so many people that were in the same situation as us. Jess was amazed as there are not a lot of burns victims in Tasmania that we are aware of. There were no stares, no comments, and no assumptions. Jess formed a lot of friendships at this camp and the greatest of all were the staff from KIDS. The camp went for 4 days and at the end it was like saying goodbye to family members. Jess now has a different outlook on life, a higher self esteem and a can do attitude. The support is not only when you are at camp but continual and thanks to all there encouragement Jess was able to stand up in front of her school consisting of 700 pupils and read her self written autobiography to them. Something she did not have the confidence to do 12 months ago. This foundation not only provides support to burns victims but also to the family as Jessie’s “mum” I can not thank these people enough for the love and support they have given to Jess.
Jessies’s new favourite saying is:
“If people can’t see past my scars, then they are the ones with a problem aye mum”
So true baby so true.
Love Helen