Eye condition won’t stop Belle’s dream
A Wellington schoolgirl who aspires to represent New Zealand in her chosen sport isn’t letting an eye condition block her path to the top.
Belle Burdon, 15, has played numerous sports throughout her youth, including cricket, football, netball, swimming and underwater hockey.
Cricket was affected the most when she contracted Stargardt disease, an eye condition which affects her central vision, three years ago.
‘‘It just makes your life a little bit harder,’’ she said.
Of those sports listed above, underwater hockey is her biggest passion and it was the one she was desperate to continue. Belle’s aunt once represented New Zealand and she plans to follow in her footsteps.
However, the eye condition provided a huge hurdle as she was unable to see the puck underwater.
‘‘My eyesight doesn’t really disadvantage me in the sport. It’s just the puck was so small that I couldn’t tell where it was or if I was far away,’’ the Wellington Girls’ College student said.
‘‘The goals, they’re fine, and being in the water is fine. It was just the puck. It was kind of a browny-orange and because my eyesight was going my colour was also going and there wasn’t enough of a contrast for me to see it.’’
So, Belle’s mother decided to do something about it. She went to the head of the underwater hockey association in Wellington and asked if they would consider changing the puck to a fluoro pink colour.
‘‘She said that I wanted to play the sport and wanted to play at a national level, and the coordinator said ‘well what do you need help with?’ We told her the pucks weren’t the right colour so we trialled different pucks and we found the right one, and they made an overall rule that every game would be used with that puck in New Zealand and around the world,’’ she said.
‘‘Honestly, everyone is behind me and I could talk to anyone and they’ll be happy to help me with anything I need.’’
Now able to see the puck much clearer, Belle has taken her underwater hockey to another level. She recently received an invitation to trial for New Zealand. However, because of her age she decided to decline the opportunity, wanting to wait another 12 months before giving it a real go.
‘‘My main goal is just to continue enjoying it, having fun, meeting new people, and probably make the New Zealand team some day,’’ she said.