My skate escape
Teen defies the odds to be an ice star
It’s just me and the music and I feel fearless
The talented 15-year-old has overcome two disabilities to get on the rink and win two gold and two silver medals.
Inclusive ice- skating has unlocked a new world for the schoolgirl who is autistic and suffers from epilepsy. Murronrose – who has had countless seizures – is preparing to represent her country at the Inclusive Ice-Skating World Championships at Braehead in April.
Not bad for a girl who just 15 months ago had never set foot on an ice rink.
Her determination has earned her a Sunday Mail Young S cot Award nomination in the Unsung Hero category.
Murronrose, of Bargeddie, Lanarkshire, said: “I love the freedom of being on the ice. It’s just me and the music and I feel fearless.
“I never dreamed I would be able to ice skate, never mind win medals. It’s been the best experience of my life and I can’t wait to represent my country at the World Championships.”
Murronrose’s mum Michelle, 44, is extremely proud of her talented daughter.
She said: “Like a lot of children with autistic spectrum disorder, our daughter didn’t have much of a social life, so we were looking for clubs she could join and happened upon inclusive skating.
“Inclusive skating is ice skating for children and adults with intellectual and physical impairments. They hold competitions all over the world.
“We had no idea whether Murronrose would even attempt getting on the ice but she just put on a pair of skates and off she went, not even looking back.”
“She quickly showed a real talent for it and in April last year won a silver and a gold medal at a national competition.
“In November, we travelled to Iceland to represent Scotland and she won another silver and gold trophy and now she is preparing for the ‘worlds’ in April.
“Murronrose has achieved all this in just 15 months, an incredible feat by anyone’s standards.
“Her dad Jim, brother Jaime and I love watching her on the ice, it’s like watching someone who has found themselves. She has so much more confidence and has made lots of friends. “She told me skating made her feel like she was a bird that had been let out of a cage. What a beautiful way of putting it. At last she feels free.”
Murronrose, who skates at Coatbridge Time Capsule with coaches Janet Donaldson and Rebecca Hutchison, first had seizures aged f ive and sleeps with an alarm, given to her by the Muir Maxwell Trust, under her mattress to alert her parents at night. Michelle said: “The alarm has saved her life hundreds of times.
“Once a seizure starts we have just 25 minutes to get her into the recovery position and administer emergency medicine before the risk of brain damage becomes a serious possibility.
“Although there’s a chance of her having a seizure on the ice, the coaches have a plan in place to deal with it if it happens.”
She added: “I called my daughter after Murron in Braveheart and she has more than lived up to the name. Like William Wallace’s leading lady, she is brave, determined and has defied all the odds.
“She is our unsung hero and we’re delighted she has been nominated for a Young Scot Award.”