Nursing desire to move on after tragedy proves en pointe
ASHMORE resident Myfanwy Fish has defied the odds to establish one of Australia’s largest dancewear stores.
Ms Fish, 57, had been a registered nurse for 20 years when a workplace accident left her with permanent injuries, offering her no choice but to quit her dream job.
“I was working night shift and a patient was falling,” she said. “He was heavy and his weight crushed my hands against a cupboard door.”
Multiple operations followed for her hands and a wrist, including removing tendons from an ankle to place in the wrist, and opening out her fingers.
“Faced with the use of one hand, I couldn’t do nursing,” Ms Fish said.
“So I put my mind to thinking: ‘What else can I do?’”
Ms Fish was outside her daughter’s dance studio when she conceived the idea of selling second-hand dance shoes and costumes.
It proved a winning notion and in 2003 she established Dance Desire, selling from the boot of her car. From there she stepped up to a house and then to sheds before opening the store where she now sells new dancewear.
Dance Desire, at 4/24 Central Park Ave, Ashmore, has grown to rank among Australia’s largest independent dancewear outlets and employs nine staff.
Ms Fish also has created En Pointe, an orthotic insert for ballet shoes, to help reduce stress fractures and bunions. She said the flexible mould distributed weight better and was more comfortable, enabling dancers to perform for longer.
She has also established an investment group with seven other women.
Group members take overseas trips together, funded by profits from their stock market and property investments.
The former nurse said that while the workplace incident had been painful, she had found the opportunity to try new things and change her path exciting.
“I love my work,” she said.