Tom says he was recently attending a new college when one of the teachers called him to his office. What did I do wrong? Am I late with my studies? Or is there something wrong with my registration? These are the questions that Tom was asking himself as he headed for the office.
Imagine his astonishment when the professor said to him: “I want to discuss your feet. My daughter has the same problem as you ”.
Tom Beard, story
Tom Beard was born with club feet, the medical term is clubfoot-varus-supinated.
At his birth, both of his feet pointed downwards and inwards, with the soles of both feet facing backwards. In the absence of corrective treatment, club feet are very limiting in everyday activities such as walking, running, and anything else that requires standing.
This question from the lecturer took Tom back to his childhood, to all the surgeries he had undergone, to being in a wheelchair and being pushed into the corridors of the school by his friends, and even to the times when bullies knocked him over.
Says Tom: “It wasn’t easy. Several times my mother was called by the school precisely because of the bullying I was a victim of ”. Tom had never realized how his problem was common to many until that day, when the professor called him asking for advice.
“She was heartbroken – continues Tom – because the treatments had not yet given the desired results and his daughter was only three years old. I told him not to panic because what doctors can do now for children is a lot ”.
In fact, now all the surgeries that Tom has undergone are no longer necessary, and not even all those metal pins that Tom has in the joints of his feet. “My dad was the first to let me try golf. He took me some super small clubs and I started throwing my first shots with them: I was five years old.
At the age of seven he enrolled me in the golf club that I still frequent. Because of my problems, I didn’t play many holes, it was more to get me into the environment, to make me feel part of a club, since I certainly couldn’t be part of a football or rugby team.
” Twenty years later Tom Beard is still a member of the same club, a place where he feels totally at home.
The sociability in a group of people with common interests, the game and the experiences on the field, all this changed his life.
“Golf is probably what has influenced my life the most. I think if I didn’t have golf I wouldn’t be who I am today, I’m one hundred percent sure. I’ve made friends for life. At the golf club I have always met people of all ages and they have never treated me differently.
In my circle I have matured and grown up. Golf has also made me polite towards other people ”. Tom radiates gratitude: to his parents, Tim and Jayne, for helping him through difficult times, going through and overcoming pain, the anguish of not being able to get up properly, bullying and the endless cycle of operations, rehab, operation and etc; to his younger sister Molly who helped him fill in the blanks of his childhood; to consultant Mr Bradish and his team who skillfully worked on Tom’s feet to give him the chance to take part in daily activities; to his first golf coach Glenn Williams who fully included him in junior lessons respecting what he could and could not do; to England Golf coach for the disabled Craig Thomas.
Craig challenged Tom with questions he had never been asked before and helped him improve his game a lot. Many of Tom’s friends – among them are the companions who pushed him in the wheelchair at the time of school – are now starting to play golf.
“Over the past four or five years many of my friends from school and college who played football, rugby, basketball, have been texting me saying, ‘Where do you play? I want to start playing golf ”. Thanks to his sympathy, Tom has already convinced many acquaintances to try golf, as well as being an inspiration to those who have his pathology.
Tom is living a full life with a mostly invisible physical problem. Many of the people he interacts with are totally unaware of it. He says that sometimes someone, seeing him uncertain and in difficulty during certain movements, asks him: “Are you okay? You are a bit young for having leg problems ” In the simple and direct way of him Tom replies: “Well, yes. I only have a couple of problems with my feet ”.
