Real life stories need telling - 2

Some people inspire by their actions, some people inspire by their words, and some people inspire just by existing, and my friend Besart Hamzaj is one of those people.

Besart grew up in the small Albanian town of Kukes where the challenges of being an everyday citizen are huge. Albania is one of the poorest countries in Europe, where almost one quarter of the population earn less than US$2 a day. As if potentially earning US$54 a month isn't a big enough challenge, Besart was born with thrombocytopenia with absent radius, or TAR syndrome, which is where you don't have any radius bones in your arms, meaning his hands are attached to his shoulders.He was also born with severely bowed legs, so when he was growing up, all the children used to call him a wizard (a major insult in Albania).

When Moira Kelly from the Children First Foundation was in Albania, she met Besart and decided she could help straighten his legs, so she got Besart flown to Australia where a surgeon at the Mater hospital in Sydney donated his time to perform the surgery to set Besart's legs straight. While he was in Sydney recuperating he lived the life, he got treated like another child in a family that a lot of Australian children would be jealous of. By the end of his stay, Besart was playing soccer in new clothes, was taken out water skiing for a day, and had eaten like a King for his entire stay  

The time came though when he had to go home. He went back to Kukes with straight legs, better English and new clothes, but he still had no radius bones in his arms, few job prospects, and people still called him a wizard, but despite the fact he thinks Albania is "mut" (shit), and insisting he has g2g (got to go), he just keeps trying to get by, and that's why Besart inspires me. He hasn't started a charity, or been to the paralympics or climbed Mount Everest, he's just gone to University and is trying to open an internet cafe, but he's struggling. Life is tough enough on it's own, but for Besart, it's even tougher, but he just keeps trying, He wants to get out of the life he's in, but. he gets up everyday and gets through it, and he does complain, but he doesn't whinge

Besart wants a perfect life, but until it arrives, he's going to keep living the one he's been given.