I recently travelled from Sydney to the NSW Central Coast to record an interview with Helena Brunner for The Limb Shift. From world-record-breaking athlete to artist and musician, Helena’s journey is one of incredible grit and reinvention. Keep an ear and an eye out for her full story when the podcast launches later this year, but for now, here is a look at Helena’s life, and the great conversation we had.
Helena Brunner, an artist and performer from the New South Wales Central Coast, has navigated a life defined by both profound trauma and remarkable adaptation.
Her journey was irrevocably altered in her youth by a near-fatal motorcycle accident, an event that reshaped her physical reality and set her on a path toward recovery and self-discovery.
While working for Australia Post during her university holidays in the late 1970s, Helena’s life changed in an instant. Regarding the accident, she recalls:
“I was just going past Vaucluse Boys High School and there was a taxi coming up from Watsons Bay. He didn’t have his indicator on. And so I continued on through a giveaway sign I had pulled up and we had a head on collision”.
The physical consequences were catastrophic. Helena suffered a “degloved” leg, describing the severity of the injury with stark clarity:
“My foot was laying on the back of my thigh”.
Following the crash, Helena spent five and a half months in the hospital, undergoing numerous operations in a desperate attempt to save her limb.
Eventually, facing ongoing infections, chronic pain, and an arduous recovery, she requested an amputation in December 1979. Reflecting on this difficult decision with the perspective of time, she notes:
“It was a dog’s dinner. I was never going to be able to walk on it. I was in excruciating pain and I was non-weight bearing the whole time on crutches. It looked like an alien’s leg”.
She further adds that while the mental loss of a limb was devastating for a twenty-year-old athlete, “in hindsight, which is always easier, isn’t it? It should have been taken straight away”.
Despite the trauma, Helena’s spirit remained unyielding. A former competitive swimmer, she was introduced to the Amputee Sporting Association shortly after her surgery.
Driven by a new sense of purpose, she began training and, within only three months, found herself competing internationally in Japan. Describing her experience arriving at the games, she says:
“I arrived there, I knew nobody. There was a small team… I saw them in their green and yellow tracksuits… and did my event, and broke a world record”.
Held in New York, she competed in the A4 category and won 5 events, in the process setting World and Paralympic Records in the 100m backstroke, 100m freestyle, 400m freestyle, 4x100m freestyle relay and the 4x100m medley relay. She also won a silver medal in the 200m medley and a bronze medal in the 100m breaststroke.
Regarded as one of the world’s best amputee swimmers during her career, she set 14 World Records and won many international events. Awarded the Order of Australia Medal (OAM) in 1985.
This early foray into adaptive sports highlighted the necessity of connection. For Helena, the community she found within the Amputee Association was vital. As she explains:
“Finding a community is what a lot of people have talked about… just someone who you don’t have to talk about, oh, this happened and that happened. And it’s just someone who you can talk to”.
Helena’s professional life has been multifaceted, spanning years as a teacher and choir conductor at Empire Bay Public School.
Her approach to her disability in the classroom was transformative for her students. She shares:
“When I used to take my leg off and put it on the desk. The faces were magic”.
In recent years, Helena has channeled her energy into her art and music, which serves as a vital tool for mindfulness and self-expression. She notes:
“I feel very present when I’m painting and drawing”.
Her evolution as an amputee is also reflected in how she presents herself. Where she once felt compelled to hide her prosthetic limb, she now embraces it, opting for stylish, visible “chrome covers” rather than traditional, flesh-coloured ones.
Ultimately, Helena’s philosophy is rooted in persistence and the courage to try, regardless of the outcome. She offers this advice to others:
“Having close friends and family is very important and trying not to let things hold you back. Have a go. Even if it doesn’t work out or you don’t, you don’t succeed. Success is good though. Even if it’s you setting yourself a goal, you know, and you achieve that goal”.
When faced with the inevitable setbacks of life, she acknowledges the struggle—especially the bouts of depression that accompany periods of reduced mobility—but remains steadfast in her belief that “usually something comes out of it, some other opportunity”.
