In My Dreams I Dance by Anne Wafula Strike. Book review

Hi de Hi, thank you for all the comments on the mulitcoloured rug, and the votes as to where I should put it. I will leave it in the bedroom for a while, but might move it to the bathroom, ha ha. Today I have another book review. I much prefer autobiographies, as I think there are some amazing stories out there by some amazing people. This is one of them. I read the blurb on the back cover when I picked it up, and the author appeared to be one very strong lady. The first sentence reads, 'Anne Wafula achieved what people said was impossible'. Sounds good to me, I like a tale of courage.  

Anne grew up in a small village in Kenya, she was one of eight children. At the age of two and a half, she was  struck down by an illness, no one knew what it was. Even the local witch doctor didn't know what it was. One year later, the family moved to Nairobi where Anne went to see a doctor, and was diagnosed with polio. For about a year she had to endure her body being enclosed in plaster, and later she was given callipers and crutches to help her get around.

Her father had high hopes of her making a career for herself and sent her to a special boarding school for disabled children at the age of four and a half. She found that very hard at first, but got used to it. Her mother suddenly died when Anne was nine, a terrible blow for her.

Anne excelled academically and went on to another school, then to university and trained to become a teacher. All this time she was still struggling with her callipers and crutches.

Anyway, not wanting to spoil the story for you if you want to read it, I'll skip forward a bit. She met a nice man, fell in love, got married and they had a son. I thought that was the end of the story, they all live happily ever after, but no, there's more. This remarkable lady was given her first wheelchair at the age of 29, and this opened up a whole new world for her. Fast forward, she discovered that she loved racing in her chair and started winning medals, she became the first East African to compete at her sport at the highest level. 

Anne had been knocked back so many times in her life, but her belief in herself was overwhelming, she found the strength to overcome every obstacle which was put in her way. This is a truly inspiring story. Look out for this book, it is an amazing story, well worth reading. 

I googlied her name and found out a bit more. She has a blog.

http://annewafulastrike.blogspot.co.uk/

and a web site

http://annestrike.org/

And she is on yootoob

Toodle pip.