Dr Annie McAuley got her PhD in medical science while pregnant with her first and second children – and still managed to complete it on time.
It’s a feat that reflects her fierce determination and a strong will to learn, which are both qualities that were strengthened after the 35-year-old suffered a traumatic brain injury.
At just 18 years of age Dr McAuley, a competitive skier, was working as an instructor in Victoria when a ski fell from one of the chair lifts and hit her squarely in the head.
At just 18 years of age Dr McAuley, a competitive skier, was working as an instructor in Victoria when a ski fell from one of the chair lifts and hit her squarely in the head (Annie pictured after the accident)
Dr Annie McAuley got her PhD in medical science while pregnant with her first and second children – and still managed to complete it on time
She can’t remember two years before that moment or two years after it. Four years of her life are wiped clean of memory: graduating high school, watching some of her friends go to university, precious time with the man who would go on to become her husband.
‘I wiped out the language region of my brain and parts of the frontal cortex. I had to learn how to walk and talk again – and at so young, it was devastating,’ she told FEMAIL.
The Melbourne mother does remember two years after she began rehabilitation therapy finally taking some of her first steps again and thinking she could run too.
But with time – and an elite sportsman attitude that told her friends and family she’d never give up – she recovered from her injuries (pictured skiing again)
‘I tried, thinking I could definitely do it, and I just fell down straight away. The really complicated things we take for granted every day where hugely apparent to me then,’ Dr McAuley explained.
‘I feel like because a brain injury doesn’t necessarily come with any physical signs that I’m unwell – like a bandage – people couldn’t figure out why I was struggling to speak or walk.
‘Sometimes I wish I’d broken both my legs instead, just because then it’s obvious.’
But with time – and an elite sportsman attitude that told her friends and family she’d never give up – she recovered from her injuries. Speaking to Dr McAuley today and you’d never know she once struggled to speak.
Today she’s the proud business owner of tech company TalkiPlay, which works as an interactive force to help children with language delays enhance their literary skills.
‘The real catalyst for making the product was my daughter actually. When she was eight months old she stopped mumbling and had no motivation to talk,’ she explained (pictured with her husband)
Being one of the first concepts that combines movement with literacy, school teachers and speech pathologists were instrumental in helping Dr McAuley institute her tech-based work in classrooms and homes
‘The real catalyst for making the product was my daughter actually. When she was eight months old she stopped mumbling and had no motivation to talk,’ she explained.
‘She was diagnosed with having a language delay and for a moment I felt personally responsible. Totally irrational but that’s what parents do.
‘I really sympathised with her because I knew how frustrating not being able to speak is. It felt really raw to me.’
Being one of the first concepts that combines movement with literacy, school teachers and speech pathologists were instrumental in helping Dr McAuley institute her tech-based work in classrooms and homes.
Her work, which is backed by BlueChilli, has been chosen as part of the SheStarts Accelerator Program and will see her flying to New York and onwards to San Francisco to share her project with those at companies like Google and Microsoft
‘People were coming up to me and asking “how is she talking?!” – it’s not rare for children to suffer from language delays. If I can provide wonder where there was once stress than I’ll be happy,’ she explained.
Her work, which is backed by BlueChilli, has been chosen as part of the SheStarts Accelerator Program and will see her flying to New York and onwards to San Francisco to share her project with those at companies like Google and Microsoft.
‘I really wanted to show people that you can still do things outside having children when you’re a mum,’ she said.
‘Life is a celebration every day that I’m here. After the injury I was told I’d never have kids. So I find a lot of joy in them, and what I do.’
You can register your interest with TalkiPlay here.