Miss Pilpel’s Year 3 class welcomed a guest speaker last week with a remarkable story of resilience and courage.
Students were provided with some background information about Josh and how he has shown resilience throughout his life, and they created individual questions to ask Josh at the end of the presentation.
“They were able to hear first-hand how Josh has tackled obstacles with an open and optimistic mindset,” said Year 3 teacher Miss Jess Pilpel. “It helps them understand how he overcame challenges by being resilient.”
Miss Pilpel said the students were inspired by the story of 28 year old Josh Yates, who grew up in Busselton, and was diagnosed with adrenoleukodystrophy as a toddler. He became partially blind and needed a bone marrow transplant as a teenager.
“Josh placed a high importance on not letting personal limitations prevent a person from achieving personal goals,” said Miss Pilpel, “and to focus on mindset over matter.”
Since the transplant in 2004, Josh said that his health improved and he took the opportunity to pursue sports despite his blindness. He competed in the World Transplant Games on the Gold Coast in 2009, and again in Sweden in 2011.
Last year Josh was selected to attend a training camp at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra to prepare for the 2017 Games in Malaga, Spain. He returned from Europe with a silver medal in the 5km race walk.
Josh thanks his bone marrow donor and says the importance of donors cannot be understated. The NDIS Champion is also a former recipient of a Western Australian Youth Award in the Motivate category, and feels that his life has broadened since becoming blind.
Josh continues to be a well-respected member of the community, and is currently a member of the Busselton Apex Club.
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