Spinal Life Healthy Living Centre Cairns at 2-4 Smith Street, is the area’s first and only fully accessible short-term and holiday accommodation. Located in the heart of Cairns, the Centre provides a relaxing stay with the additional benefit of therapies and physical rehabilitation facilities and services delivered by Spinal Life’s Allied Health Team.
Since opening their doors in 2019, they have helped a number of people take life back! One of these individuals is Sheryn Logan, a Cairns resident who spent seven months in hospital, as a result of a blood clot on her spine, which left her with a T12 spinal cord injury.
It was her Spinal Life Supports Coordinator, Alice - who organised everything from ordering equipment, to looking after her NDIS account that suggested Sheryn head to Spinal Life’s Healthy Living Centre.
And that’s exactly what she did.
“To me, being at the Healthy Living Centre felt like we were on holiday somewhere really nice. The best thing of all is we didn’t have to worry about hospital visiting hours. I've got lots of friends and family – all in Cairns – so we were hardly ever on our own during our stay. It was a big help to have them around to support me.”
It’s not just her friends and family who helped smooth Sheryn’s journey – she also sings the praises of her support team: “Everyone at the Centre was fantastic and looked after me so well.”
She has two sessions a week with her physio, Julie: one in the hydrotherapy pool, the other involving strengthening exercises in the fully accessible on-site gym.
Sheryn’s occupational therapist, Georgia, is another key member of the Centre’s team. She’s been helping Sheryn with everything from trialling ‘smooth drive’ on her manual wheelchair to getting everything organised for Sheryn to drive a car again.
But helping Sheryn get ready to move out of the Healthy Living Centre and into a new home was one of Georgia’s biggest roles.
She worked with Sheryn and her husband Brad to help make their home accessible. This was achieved when Georgia, Sheryn, and Brad went to their house to determine what modifications were needed. Georgia organised for builders to come in and give quotes which were required as part of the NDIS approval process.
Spinal Life supplied Sheryn with personal support workers throughout her stay. This allowed her to get to know them and form close bonds, so when she moved home, they continued to support her.
Sheryn was keen to get back to “normal" life as much as possible, this included getting back into the workforce. Tania from Spinal Life Australia’s Back2Work program, came onboard to help achieve this major goal.
“I work in an office for a food company, taking orders and doing invoicing, that sort of thing, and I am heading back to do three hours a day, four days a week – I’m really looking forward to it,” says Sheryn.
After months in hospital, you really don't feel like going back again! To be able to come to the Healthy Living Centre instead of going back to hospital was wonderful. I’m so grateful. When I first saw it, I just said to Brad: it's like five stars for a person with a disability!”
To learn more about Spinal Life, call 1300 774 625, email enquiries@spinal.com.au or visit their website spinalhealthyliving.com.au
