By Tom Kane
Brooklyn Eagle

BAY RIDGE — Alexandra Capellini will be going into the eighth grade at the Genesis Program at Xaverian High School in September. She loves writing and enjoys studying science and history; her favorite authors are Judy Blume and J.K. Rowling. Alexandra is a Cadet in Girl Scouts and loves helping others; loves being with her family, especially her younger sister, Sophia, who is her best friend. She loves to play tennis, volleyball, swim and ski. And oh, yes, she is also an amputee cancer-survivor.

In 2002, Alexandra’s mother, Diane Donchak, noticed swelling in her daughter’s right knee; she was six at the time. It was determined she had a tumor, and it was removed during the summer, with a 40 percent chance of the tumor recurring at some point. The tumor did recur, and in November Alexandra had it removed once again.

During a post-surgical follow up visit, Alexandra and her family were told that the surgical pathology report was positive for a malignancy. She had bone cancer. As if this news wasn’t devastating enough, they were also told that her right leg would need to be amputated above the knee. On April 15, 2003, Alexandra had the surgery to remove her leg. Chemotherapy treatments lasted through the rest of the year, at which time she was able to focus on physical therapy and learning how to walk on a prosthetic leg, which remains a work in progress.

In April of this year, Alexandra entered into a contest to win a trip to watch the “Paralympics� in Beijing in September. In May, she got a phone call from the U.S. Paralympic Academy telling her she had been selected, along with 24 others, to travel to the Paralympic Games.

“I was jumping up and down with my mom,� said Alexandra talking about the phone call. “It was so exciting. I thought I might have a chance, but when the man called that day wow.�

She had to fill out an application stating her grades, which she said “are pretty good,� and what sports she participated in, and then had to write an essay “about how much you love sports. That was the easy part.� She is now heading over with her mom to Beijing for the first week of competition of the Paralympics.

How the Paralympics Got Started

In 1948, Sir Ludwig Guttmann organized a sports competition involving World War II veterans with spinal cord injuries in Stoke Mandeville, England. Four years later, competitors from the Netherlands joined the games and an international movement was born.

Olympic style games for athletes with a disability were organized for the first time in Rome in 1960, now called Paralympics. In Toronto in 1976, other disability groups were added and the idea of merging together different disability groups for international sport competitions was born. The Paralympics are now awarded to the same city that is awarded the Olympics. All competitions are held in the Olympic venues and are conducted by Olympic officials.

“Alexandra had heard about this contest through the Pennsylvania Center for Adaptive Sports, where she attended Amputee Ski Camp,� said her mom Diane. “She loved the idea of going to see the Paralympics and was determined to do her best to try and win.�

Today, she is getting things in order for her trip. Alexandra is the youngest child to have been selected and the only child from New York. “I am really looking forward to meeting adult amputees. They seem to be so inspiring and I think it would be really cool to meet them,� Alexandra said. She plans on seeing many different sporting events while over in China, and said that visiting the Great Wall was on her list of things to do.

You can follow Alexandra on her trip to Beijing. She will be blogging the entire excursion on www.alexandraslife.edublogs.org.

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