Ms HALL (12:30 PM) —Today I bring to this chamber a tale of courage, a tale of dedication, a tale of struggle and a tale of achievement. It is the story of Tracey Blair, a 32yearold woman who had a brain tumour removed in 1991, a week before her 20th birthday. It was cancerous and she was required to spend four months in hospital undergoing radiotherapy treatment. Now she is permanently in a wheelchair and left with disabilities. Four years ago Tracey took up swimming. She has been invited overseas twice previously, to England and Korea, and now she has been chosen to represent Australia with the Excell squad in Argentina for the Pan Am Games in December this year. Her classification is S4, which makes her one of the more disabled members of the team, as the classifications run from S14 down to S1. You can see from that that she is quite a disabled young woman.

Tracey has always enjoyed swimming, and she was not going to let something like a brain tumour stop her from swimming. So in 1999 she started a learn-to-swim program at Arnolds Swim Centre at The Junction, in Newcastle. Tracey's original coach was a woman called Jenny Lambert, who encouraged her to get involved in competitive swimming. After Jenny left in 2001, Shane Arnold, at Arnolds Swim Centre, took over as Tracey's coach. Tracey trains from 7 a.m. to 8 a.m., Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, and on Tuesdays she works out in a gym.

Since being involved in swimming, Tracey has competed in many local, national and international events. She has competed in the following events: in 1999, the Southern Cross Multi-Disability Games in Homebush in Sydney; in 2000, the BT swimming nationals, Sheffield, England; in 2002, the FESPIC Games, Busan, South Korea. Tracey has gained medals, certificates and trophies. She has been inspired by this and she aims to be selected for the Paralympics in 2004. Tracey is involved in Sailability, which is conducted on Lake Macquarie, near the Belmont 16 footer sailing club and is sponsored by them. Tracey does volunteer work for Christo Road Private Hospital, is involved in Headstart, which is a program for people with acquired brain injury, and is part of the education team that talks to the community about brain injury and how to prevent it. Tracey is a young woman who has achieved a lot and has not allowed her disability to keep her down.

Tracey received a letter from Senator Rod Kemp on 22 November last year, congratulating her on winning a silver medal in the women's S4 50-metres freestyle race in 2002 at the Far East and South Pacific Games. Tracey is off to Argentina on 2 December, and I am sure she will succeed and perform very well. In the S4 division in the IPC swimming rankings, Tracey is currently ranked as 13th in the world for the 100-metres freestyle, 12th in the world for the 50-metres backstroke and 18th in the world for the 50-metres freestyle. Tracey is a young woman who has worked very hard to achieve what she has. She has the support of her family and the support of her community. Today in this House I would like to wish her all the best when she goes to Argentina. I pay testimony to the fact that Tracey has struggled and worked hard to achieve the success that she has. I congratulate her on her past achievements and wish her success for the future.