Short stories
Gold Coast Bulletin (Queensland), 19 July 2008.

Maybe the best way to tell the story of little people is to get the jokes over and done with at the start.
We'll keep it short. We'll do what most people do, which is to present the put-downs first and think about the ramifications later.
Chris Cruickshanks, a 137cm man from Chevron Island, offers this: "If I ask for a coffee at work, they always say: Will that be a short white or a short black?"
Lee Whichello, a 130cm resident of Nerang says: "At school I did what a lot of kids did back in those days, which was to have a smoke around the back of the toilets. See? It stunted my growth."
And another one for Chris: "I appear in a lot of movies, but I really only enjoy short roles."
It seems everyone has a short people gag, even the people who are the targets.
Short-statured people, as they prefer to be known, use the jokes not as a foil against the dumb remarks of average-height people, but as a way of letting it be known that if they're going to spend their lives looking up at others, they want perceived attitudes to be on their terms.
In other words, they like to get in first.
Chris, the manager of the Blue Whale Car Wash at Ashmore, uses his height as a lucrative sideline to his normal day job. He's in big demand as a film actor and for other entertainment jobs.
For example, on St Patrick's Day he dresses as a leprechaun and goes about the bars and dining areas of Twin Towns dispensing gold coin chocolates to patrons.
He's been doing that for 12 years.
"It pays well, but the best part is that it puts smiles on the faces of everyone I meet. A lot of them want me to rub them, like a true leprechaun, for good luck."
He has also played one of Snow White's dwarfs many times in pantomimes.
And, occasionally, hires himself out as a miniature Mexican waiter for parties, walking around wearing a sombrero that has guacamole on top and corn chips around the brim for party-goers to pick at.
"If it pays, why not? It doesn't worry me," says Chris.

Chris Cruickshanks 

Chris Cruickshanks, a former Kiwi,  is one of eight children -- two boys and six girls -- born to Scottish boilermaker John Cruickshanks and his wife Margaret in Christchurch.
Like Lee, Chris was the only child in the family to be affected by achondroplasia and credits his parents for developing his healthy attitude about life.
"I thank them for what I am today; my dad taught me there is no such word as 'can't'," he says.
At 64kg Chris is super-fit -- the result of his physical work at the Ashmore car wash and four months of strenuous gym work in readiness for his role in a coming action movie (the details of which he'd rather not divulge).
He has been in plenty of other movies, including Scoobie Doo, as an arm wrestler in Inspector Gadget, as a poker player in George of the Jungle II and in the new Chris Nyst Gold Coast movie Crooked Business.
Chris is someone who never gives up trying, just as his dad taught him.
He once had his heart set on being a jockey but his legs weren't long enough to reach the stirrups and he also wanted to be a car mechanic but his arms weren't long enough to reach deep into a vehicle's engine well.
On the Gold Coast, he once tried to join the snooker club at the Southport RSL but his application was declined because of the snooker rule that a player must always have one foot touching the floor.
But that's about all that has really stumped him.
He has travelled around the world, is a manager in charge of five employees, regularly plays squash and spends most weekends knocking about with mates at barbecues and in the clubs of Surfers Paradise.
He has no qualms about using his height to make money in the entertainment industry.
Apart from his movie roles and Mexican waiter and leprechaun routines, he once played Bashful, one of the dwarfs in an Australian company's Snow White pantomime that toured the North and South islands of New Zealand.
And before he moved to the Gold Coast in October, 1993, he would occasionally play the clown at the Christchurch speedway, throwing lollies to children in the crowd.
"I love making people happy," he says.
Chris has always been super-fit. He regularly works out at the gym and this year, in readiness for his action film role, has cut out beer.
"We have to keep fit because when we get older, our hips can pack up unless we keep active," he says.
Unlike Lee, he can drive most vehicles without needing pedal extensions.
"All I need is a cushion to sit on sometimes, and I can drive everything from Ford F-350s to Nissan Pulsars."
He also plays squash against average-height mates: "Guess who does all the running during a game?" asks Chris.
On the subject of running and childhood hardships, Chris fondly remembers a time in New Zealand when he was a schoolboy frustrated by the difficulty of cross-country races.
"My teacher worked out that for every pace taken by an average-height kid, I would have to take two because of the length of my legs," he says.
"So he worked out a handicap system whereby I could start somewhere along the track so I could have a fair chance of realising my running potential. It worked, and I loved running after that."
Chris has also learned to take the stares and comments of average-height people in his stride.
"If I walk into a bar, everyone will turn and look at me," he says.
"But people are not judging, they're just curious. And they might ask me things like: 'What's your life span?' So I tell them 'the day I get hit by a truck, like anybody else I suppose'."
Chris has a wide circle of mates, including larrikins who have known him long enough to involve him in practical jokes.
"I have trouble getting up on bar stools, so occasionally my mates give me a lift, then scarper and leave me stranded there or they push me into a corner on the stool and abandon me," says Chris.
"They're mates. They can do that to me because they understand me.
"There's not much I can't do without the help of milk crates to stand on -- thank God for their invention -- and there are no limits to my job or my leisure time.
"I've travelled around the world by myself, no problems. I've been to visit my sister in San Antonio, Texas, had a whale of a time, and now I'm planning to go to Las Vegas. It's gonna be big."

Lee Whichello

Lee Whichello was born and bred at Burleigh Heads. His father Richard, his mother Bonnie and his brothers Don and Jeff are all average height.
He is keen to set the record straight about dwarfism and to dispel any misconceptions about the condition.
"First up, there's a physical difference between us and midgets -- midgets have smaller proportions all over but while we have generally normal length trunks, our arms and legs are proportionally shorter -- the result in most dwarfs of achondroplasia," says Lee.
"And the other thing about us is we prefer to be called short-statured people, although naturally we get 'little people' and 'dwarfs'."
Lee, recently separated from his wife, has never allowed his lack of height to stop him doing anything.
The 52kg pocket rocket plays golf with custom-made clubs at Tally Valley, can hit the ball 180m on a good day and has a handicap of 19.
In his schooldays -- at Burleigh Heads State School and Miami High -- he had a go at every sport on offer and was competitive in hockey and soccer. He played B-grade for the Palm Beach All Stars and soccer for the Palm Beach under-10s and 12s.
"I found primary school daunting, but life became better when I went to high school," he says.
"Other kids teased me at primary school because they didn't understand, but when I went to high school, teenagers seemed to have broader minds and everything was cool.
"I've always tried to take life to the max, and older students seemed to understand that."
After leaving school, his first job was at The Gold Coast Bulletin as a copy boy and he subsequently started a four-year printer's apprenticeship. By 1988 he was a full-time compositor.
All up, he worked at the Bulletin for 20 years, finally leaving as a result of technology changes in the printing industry. He has since retrained as a clerk, proficient at computers and administrative duties and is looking for work.
"My only disability is height, the rest of me is the same as everyone else," says Lee.
"My parents brought me up with an open mind. You can't live in a shell. You have to get out there and do your best."
"The only concessions made by my mum and dad were giving me a smaller bike when I was a child and altered clothes.
"It's actually handy buying shoes, because I get them (the broader shoes) from the children's section in department stores and they're a lot cheaper there.
"And nowadays, the only real physical necessity is to have extensions on the clutch and brake pedals of my car, plus my customised golf clubs, of course."
As a young man, he dated both short-statured and average-size women.
"Of course, it's a lot easier to go out with short women, but height really doesn't matter," he says with a smile.
"Prejudices against short-statured people don't really worry me. If you let comments or people's looks get to you, you'd be miserable.
"At work, my mates used to get my coffee cup, put it up on the highest shelf, hide my stool, then stand back and watch. Sounds cruel, but I didn't mind at all. It was all good fun."
He says if he is in a supermarket and can't reach something, other shoppers are happy to help out.
"Most people are fantastic," he says.
Lee is happy to use his height disadvantage to advantage. He has been in two movie roles and a rock video, but draws the line at performing in something as 'degrading' as the dwarf throwing the Surfers Paradise nightclub game made popular in the 1980s and '90s.
"I wouldn't begrudge other little people being used in a contest like that, but it's not for me," says Lee.
He says his lack of height gives him an advantage on the golf course.
"I'm lower to the ground, so when I'm on the putting greens I can easily see which way the ball will break." 

 The Hobbs family

On the Sunshine Coast, at Bli Bli, David and Cathy Hobbs typify short-statured people who, despite their vertical limitations, are building a life without boundaries.
David and Cathy have dwarfism, but their daughter Jessica, aged two-and-a-half, is destined for average height.
Jessica, a precocious and beautiful girl with blonde hair and blue eyes, is already almost as tall as her mother's shoulders and will be taller than her parents at age eight or 10.
"She's a blessing," says Cathy.
"She completes our family and we just adore her."
David and Cathy have achondroplasia -- the most common form of dwarfism caused by a genetic disorder -- and their chances of having an average-height baby were only 25 per cent.
As well, the Hobbs had to wait eight years for a successful pregnancy to come to fruition.
"The odds for us are 25 per cent for an average-height baby, 50 per cent for short statured, and 25 per cent for double the effect of the gene, which can be lethal," says Cathy.
"I had a really good pregnancy -- I was very healthy -- and I has a caesarean section at Buderim Private Hospital three weeks before term, which is normal for women with achondroplasia.
"We knew 13 weeks after her birth that Jessica was going to be average height."
David, a manager at the Tandy store at Kawana, was born in Oklahoma, US, and was adopted at the age of two by his short-statured mum Rosemary, of Melbourne.
"Mum heard about me through an adoption agency in Australia in 1972, flew to America to adopt me, heard about another little girl called Cathy in Connecticut -- a year younger than me -- and also adopted her," says David.
"And later, she also adopted Emma, my youngest sister, from South Australia.
"She also has a son, Jim, by Rosemary's first husband George Whittacker who died when I was eight. Mum remarried, to Stephen Hobbs, and that's the surname I have.
"The whole family is made up of short-statured people.'It was Rosemary Hobbs who, in 1969, began the Short Statured Association of Australia, a support group for anyone who is born with any of the 170 forms of dwarfism.
David was brought up at Port Macquarie in NSW, educated at the local St Joseph's Catholic School and worked as a mechanic after leaving school. He knew Cathy at Port Macquarie back then, but just as friends.
As an adult he moved to Currumbin, then to Maroochydore.
Cathy was born at Queanbeyan, the youngest of three girls. Her sisters, Kerry and Jenny, and her mum and dad, Jane and Brian Foy, all were of average height.
After leaving school, Cathy worked for a building society in Canberra.
But 20 years ago she left her job to follow her family to Noosa after her parents, sisters and their spouses moved there to build an 'olden days' theme park called Nostalgia Town.
She and David met up again, fell in love and moved in together at a Maroochydore unit.
Eventually, David proposed the good old-fashioned way.
Not only did he ask Cathy's father permission to marry her, he also secretly set up the top-floor unit in their Maroochydore building with tall-stem roses, a bottle of red wine, a CD player for mood music 'and a few nibblies' to set the mood.
"I popped the question and she said 'yes', thank goodness," says David.
The arrival of Jessica naturally has changed their family dynamic and given them a new perspective on life.
"People can be cruel, and sometimes they might come up to us in a shopping centre and ask if Jessica is 'normal'," says Cathy.
"Can you imagine how much that hurts? And sometimes parents will point us out to their children and say: 'Hey kids, look at the dwarfs'.
"But Jessica will be an extra-special person because she will grow up with a perfect understanding of how we feel. She will be able to cope with the prejudices."
David says they don't want special treatment, just understanding.
"Look, we're just Dave and Cathy. Our only physical difficulty is that we can't reach things."
The Hobbs express unease about the way some short-statured people allow themselves to be 'dwarfs for hire'.
"It amounts to allowing society to put labels on us," says Cathy.
"People say: 'Oh, that's what little people do for a living', but we can do anything.
"Playing life as a dwarf degrades the work we constantly have to do to prove ourselves."
 

Sarah on track for more gold in Beijing
The Echo (Geelong, Victoria), 14 August 2008, p. 3.

OCEAN Grove swimmer Sarah Bowen believes a shoulder injury won't hurt her chances of defending her Paralympic crown.
Bowen, who won gold in the 100m breaststroke at the Athens games, said the injury had not hindered her preparation for the event.
But, she said it had plagued her preparation for the 100m backstroke, which she will swim for the first time in the Paralympics, starting in Beijing on September 7.
``I haven't done a lot of backstroke,'' Bowen said.
``I hurt my shoulder six weeks ago, so I've only started swimming that again a week ago.''
Bowen, 24, captured her Athens gold in world record time and believes she is in the same condition.
``They say that girls hit their peak at 24,'' she said.
``If I swim a good time and finish fourth, that's better than not swimming a good time at all.''
Bowen will also compete in the 200m individual medley.
The Paralympic team departs for Malaysia on August 23 and will head to Beijing a week later.
Bowen was born with achondroplasia dwarfism, but it hasn't stopped her from living life.
She works part time at the City Living and Care Centre in Drysdale and also has worked as a swim teacher. Bowen is ranked number two in the world in her category and was the number one ranked swimmer during the Athens games.
She started swimming nine years ago and quickly discovered she had ability to perform at the highest level.
``I was at a swimming event one day and a coach saw me and thought I had potential,'' she said.
Bowen broke world records in the 50m breaststroke and backstroke in 2004.
Former Ocean Grove resident Daniel Bell is also competing at the Paralympics.


Ark for ill children
Daily Telegraph (New South Wales), 4 September 2008, p. 19.

NICOLE and Goran Jordanov were shocked when doctors told them their first child had dwarfism.
With no family history of the affliction, the couple was dumbfounded that their son, Noah, was one in 10,000 babies born each year with the connective tissue disorder.
While still coming to terms with the news, Mrs Jordanov of Moorebank was then faced with another challenge.
One week after Noah was born the first-time mum developed a life-threatening blood clot.
``That put things into perspective and made me accept Noah's condition,'' Mrs Jordanov said.
``He is the light of our lives.''
Now two, Noah, is a healthy toddler but still unable to walk or talk.
Now, through the help of a world class clinic in western Sydney, he is being given the best start in life.
Dealing with 600 rare disorders including -- achondroplasia (dwarfism), marfans or excessively tall stature and brittle bones -- the connective tissue disorder clinic at the Childrens Hospital, Westmead, is helping children lead a healthy life.
Almost 30 years ago, when it was founded by Professor David Sillence, disorders were going undiagnosed, putting people at risk of death.
The clinic now sees about 700 patients each year.
``Before we instituted our programs almost three decades ago, our work with some of the more severe disorders was simply to be available to relieve the suffering of those children as they died from respiratory failure,'' Professor Sillence said.
``Today we don't expect any of these children will die. We relieve their pain enormously and for all the different disorders we look after we've made their quality of life so much better.''
 

Pioneer of genetics
Herald-Sun (Victoria, Australia), 12 September 2008, p. 90.
Author: Doug Button

Dr Victor McKusick

GENETICIST

Born: October 21, 1921
Died: July 22, 2008

DR Victor McKusick was a key architect of the Human Genome Project and a winner of America's National Medal of Science (2001).
His work explored the links between genetics and disease.
He trained as a cardiologist but turned to medical genetics in the late 1950s.
In 1966, Dr McKusick published the first edition of Mendelian Inheritance of Man, with 1500 entries on inherited disorders. It now has more than 20,000 entries.
Dr McKusick was one of the first to propose the human genome map in 1969.
Two disorders carry his name: McKusick Type Metaphyseal Chondrodysplasia, a form of dwarfism found among the Amish; and McKusick-Kaufman syndrome, a developmental disorder marked by congenital heart disease, build-up of fluid in the female reproductive tract and extra fingers and toes. He was 86.
 

Big event supports the short-statured
Tablelands Advertiser (Queensland), 17 September 2008, p. 4.

AN invitation has been extended to people of short stature or families with someone born with achondroplasia (dwarfism) to attend this year's national convention at the Gold Coast.
Heather Knuth, wife of Member for Charters Towers Shane Knuth, began a support group for parents with short statured children after her son Daniel was born with the condition 11 years ago.
Mrs Knuth eventually found 22 families from Rockhampton to Cairns who had an interest in being part of the group, and subsequently organised the first ever convention for Queensland in 2005.
"These conventions are important so people can get together and have fun but also hear from experts about medical issues faced by short people," she said.
The 41st national convention is scheduled to be held from September 29 to October 5 at Mt Tamborine on the Gold Coast and Mrs Knuth and her son Daniel wish to encourage families to attend.
"The whole family benefits - he parents get valuable information from each other about their personal experiences, and the short person makes friends with others in the same predicament, while siblings get to meet other families going through the same things," Mrs Knuth said.
If you are interested in attending, call Mrs Knuth on 4787 2987.
Heather Knuth, with her son Daniel, is urging parents to attend the upcoming national convention for short people.


Daniel Bell and Sarah Bowen are bringing home gold and silver
The Echo (Victoria), 18 September 2008, p. 1.

Daniel Bell and Sarah Bowen are bringing home gold and silver
OCEAN Grove Paralympian Sarah Bowen produced her second-fastest time ever in the 100m breaststroke final at the Beijing Paralympics to secure a silver medal.
Bowen finished just .52 seconds behind Great Britain's Elizabeth Johnson in the final, recording a time of 1:42.39 seconds, which was only slower than her Athens Paralympic record.
Bowen was a second behind Johnson at the 50m mark and slowly pegged back the margin in the race to the finish, but ran out of water.
``They said if I had have had another 30 centimetres, I would've got her,'' Bowen said from Beijing.
``I was very satisfied because it was a very tough race, I had no regrets.''
Bowen's coach Lucky Weerakkody said a silver medal was a great result.
Weerakkody said he sent Bowen an SMS immediately after the race, congratulating her on winning a silver medal.
``I got a text back saying `It was a very hard race but I needed longer fingernails','' Weerakkody said.
Bowen's time in the final was two seconds faster than her heat and would have surprised her British rival, who entered the race an odds-on favourite.
But despite Johnson being favourite, Bowen, who was born with achondroplasia dwarfism, said she felt a weight of expectations on her shoulders as the reigning Paralympic champion.
``It was a pretty cruisy time (in the heats), so I knew I had more left for the final,'' Bowen said.
Weerakkody, who watched the final from his Geelong home, said he couldn't believe Bowen maintained her fast start.
``I thought she would slow down after the first 50 metres but she did the opposite,'' he said.
Weerakkody said he rode every emotion as Bowen surged to the line.
He said he knew how much the victory meant to Johnson by watching her celebrations.
Bowen revealed Johnson's mother had died in the lead-up to the Games and was the reason for her reaction.
Johnson also failed to eclispe Bowen's Paralympic record, missing by just three hundredths of a second.
Bowen attended last night's closing ceremony and will return to Ocean Grove this weekend.
She will turn her attention to the Australian Short Course championships for people with disabilities next weekend.
Meanwhile, Bowen's training partner and former Ocean Grove resident Daniel Bell was part of the Australian men's 4x100m medley relay gold medal winning team.
Bell contested the heats of competition but was left out of the final.


Bowen's winning streak keeps getting better
The Echo (Victoria), 25 September 2008, p. 3.

OCEAN Grove Paralympian Sarah Bowen has continued her medal-winning streak following the Beijing Paralympics.
Bowen picked up a silver medal in the 100m breaststroke disability final at the Australian Short Course Championships in Melbourne on Tuesday.
The silver medal emulates her silver at the Beijing Paralympics a fortnight ago.
Bowen said she was pleased with her swim after spending more than a week out of the pool.
``It felt like a pretty good swim, so I was happy with it,'' Bowen said.
Bowen, who was born with achondroplasia dwarfism, returned to her Ocean Grove home at the weekend, proudly showing off her new silverware.
But she still knows how close she came to winning gold in the 100m breaststroke.
Great Britain's Elizabeth Johnson beat the Ocean Grove swimming star by just .52 seconds.
Officials estimated Bowen needed less than one metre more to win gold.
Bowen said Johnson told her post race that she was surprised by the close finish.
``She was just so shocked at how close a race it was,'' she said.
Bowen was still able to take a positive from the games she maintained her Paralympic record from Athens.
``I saw that and thought, that's good I've still got the record, it's there for another four years,'' she said.
Bowen, 24, is now considering whether she will aim for the London Paralympics in 2012.
She said her decision would be based on whether she had the passion to compete at the highest level.
``If I've got the passion, I'll be there but four years is a long way away,'' she said.
Bowen will take a break from the major competitions before the state titles in January.