Girl with cerebral palsy captures prestigious writing prize
March 30th, 2008Jemma Leech wrote her way past 1,600 other children to win essay contest
From the Houston Chronicle:
”I am Jemma and I am immortal!”
Thus begins the one-page autobiography of Houston fifth-grader Jemma Leech who, though cerebral palsy has left her little control of her body, lives in a vivid world of images and words that modern technology now is beginning to let her share.
… In darker moments, Jemma writes about how others perceive her.
” ‘How can you,’ they say in hushed tones, ‘read, write and think like normal people do?’ ” she writes. ” ‘Surely that mother of yours is just making it up and should stop telling fibs.’ Well, d’you know? I do have a brain and I do have a mind – and the imagination of Dahl, the poetry of Keats, the drama of Shakespeare, the music of Verdi and the passion of them all in one.”
Here’s an earlier story on Jemma from the [UK] Times — Young, gifted and helpless: She is trapped in a body that doesn’t work. So how do you unlock her mind?
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