DANCING TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE
AFTER LIVING AT RONALD MCDONALD HOUSE TWICE AS A CHILD, TAYLAH IS PAYING IT FORWARD
Taylah Hardes was at the pinnacle of her dancing career when a debilitating ankle injury threatened to crush her dreams of a life on stage. The 20-year-old, from Scone, NSW, tore and snapped seven ligaments in her right ankle when she fell last May.
“It was horrific,” she tells New Idea. “At the time, I was at the peak of my career. I was teaching dance and I’d been accepted into full-time training, so I was studying as well. But because of my injury I had to drop out.”
Although Taylah didn’t require surgery, the talented performer was banned from dancing and had to complete extensive physiotherapy. She was crushed.
But amid the devastation, Taylah stumbled across a special fundraising project.
Dance for Sick Kids is a seven-day dance challenge that raises funds to help seriously ill children and their families.
It’s an initiative to support Ronald Mcdonald House Charities (RMHC), a cause that had been close to Taylah’s heart for many years.
Taylah’s family have been required to stay in Ronald Mcdonald House twice.
The first time was when she was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune disease that causes the body to attack insulin-producing cells.
Tests done by her local GP in the rural town of Scone revealed the then 12-year-old’s blood sugar was dangerously high.
“I was lucky not to go into a diabetic coma,” Taylah explains.
“I was told to go home, pack a bag and then we had to drive straight to the John Hunter Hospital in Newcastle, two hours away. I was confused, scared and overwhelmed. My mum was crying.”
Taylah spent a week in hospital learning how to manage her condition.
“The hardest part was discovering it wasn’t going to go away, as well as facing the fear of injecting myself multiple times a day.”
Thankfully, Taylah’s parents Kerry and Jason and her younger sister Amber were by her side through it all because they were able to stay at the Ronald Mcdonald House
“I don’t think I would’ve got through that without my parents,” she says.
Three years later, little sister Amber was also diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Like Taylah, she was only 12.
‘I’M GOING TO RAISE MONEY TO HELP FAMILIES LIKE MINE’
“She went to John Hunter Hospital in an ambulance, too. That was [even more] terrifying because I already knew the consequences of having high blood sugar and the chance of this leading to a diabetic coma. “We live two hours away. So those two hours felt like two weeks,” she recalls. Thankfully, Amber made it to hospital in time and the Hardes family were able to stay at Ronald Mcdonald
House to support her.
“I was there to reassure her that it was going to be OK, and that she was just going to get to do what I do.”
Taylah says Ronald Mcdonald House is especially important for people who live in rural communities.
“It’s not like it’s just a 20-minute trip down the road to go to the hospital. For us, it’s a two-hour trip and a lot can change in two hours.”
That’s why, when she heard about Dance for Sick Kids shortly after her accident last year, Taylah vowed to take part – even though she had a huge boot on her foot.
“I had so much fun and I raised over $1000,” she smiles. But as the dust settled after the fundraiser, Taylah found herself on an emotional roller-coaster during rehab for her injury.
“I started to become scared to dance sometimes because I was worried I was going to injure myself again.
“I’d been at the peak of my career and all of a sudden I was back at square one.”
Taylah, who’d been a very competitive dancer, was also gripped by ‘comparisonitis’.
“There’s not as much flexibility in my right ankle. There was this constant fear that I wasn’t good enough.”
However, something shifted in Taylah when she began to receive emails about the 2022 Dance for Sick Kids fundraiser.
“It’s such a great cause; I really enjoyed doing it last year, and that fear of not being good enough, or being compared, left my body.
“It’s sparked my interest in dancing again because this is a cause I will always be able to get behind.
“I’ve been slowly getting back into dancing, using it as an emotional outlet.
“I’m doing up to 15 hours a week now,” says Taylah, who teaches dance via Zoom to students living remotely.
“I’m super excited for the Dance for Sick Kids week, knowing I’m going to raise money that will help families stay in a home away from home, like mine did.”
Dance for Sick Kids 2022 is a seven-day challenge held from May 23-29. Participants pick a time each day to dance, ride, walk or swim to raise funds for severely ill children and their families.