Shane Speden and Ayesha Campbell in action at the New
Zealand figure skating championships at the Dunedin Ice
Stadium yesterday. Photo by Peter McIntosh.
Figure skating was the lifeline that Ayesha Campbell used
to beat Wilms' tumour, a childhood kidney cancer.
Campbell (17), a pupil at Burnside High School in
Christchurch, was 12 when she first tried to skate.
"I was very ill, couldn't walk, and was confined to a
wheelchair for two years," she said.
She had spent 17 weeks in hospital and had one of her kidneys
removed.
"I fell in love with skating," she said.
"The doctors didn't want me to skate or do any sport but my
parents gave me the OK to skate."
It was slow progress at first but Campbell persevered and
became more confident on skates.
Her health improved and she is now able to do a full figure
skating programme.
This involves 24 hours training on the ice each week at the
Centaurus Ice Skating Club and off-ice work that involves
running, weights and core work in the gymnasium.
Campbell has now been skating for six years and recently was
passed clear after the seven-year cancer test.
Three years ago, she teamed with her schoolmate, Shane Speden
(18), in an ice-dance partnership.
At the Australian championships last August, they qualified
to compete internationally and became the first ice-dance
couple to represent New Zealand.
They competed at the world junior championships at The Hague,
Netherlands, in March.
"It was such a different standard over there," Speden said.
"The skating and the judging is a lot harder."
Speden has been skating for 10 years.
It is the goal of both skaters to represent New Zealand at
the Winter Olympics in Russia in 2014.
"I like skating because it gives me a freedom of movement
that I don't find anywhere else," he said.
The Christchurch pair demonstrated their class by winning the
New Zealand junior ice dance title at the Dunedin Ice Stadium
yesterday when they beat 15-year-old Dunedin twins Dominic
and Anne-Sophie Shogimen.
Campbell and Speden scored 44.59 points on the short routine
and backed it up with 61.62 points in the free dance
yesterday for a total of 106.21 points.
The Dunedin twins scored 16.63 points on the short routine
and 29.79 in the free dance for a total of 46.42 points.
The New Zealand championships continue at the Dunedin Ice
Stadium until Friday.
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