Naomi Watts to play courageous northern beaches mum left paralysed while in Thailand
Hollywood star Naomi Watts is set to play a northern beaches mum who was left paralysed while on holiday in Thailand. Following the accident, it was a magpie that helped Sam Bloom overcome her struggles.
Manly
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NORTHERN beaches mum Sam Bloom, who was left paralysed after an accident on holiday in Thailand, is planning to show Hollywood actor Naomi Watts just how difficult life is in a wheelchair so she can accurately portray her in a movie about her life.
Mrs Bloom, 47, of Newport, who has set herself a challenge to be able to walk again by the time she is 50, said filming will begin early next year.
But she hoped to spend “heaps of time” with Watts beforehand showing her the daily struggles she endures including taking her for a surf and to a wheelchair accessible gym at Sargood in Collaroy for a workout.
“It will be fun hanging out, teaching her what it’s like,” Mrs Bloom said.
“But I want her to see how hard it is to even dress yourself if you have a spinal cord injury.”
“I want the movie to be real and honest.
“I think it will be a challenge for her.”
The film will tell the story of how Mrs Bloom broke her back at chest height when a balcony railing collapsed while in Thailand in January 2013 and how a baby magpie who became part of the family help lift her out of the depression she suffered as she adjusted to her new life.
It was her middle son Noah, now 15, who found the baby magpie he named Penguin, injured in the street.
But it was mainly Mrs Bloom who was at home after the accident who nursed him back to health and formed the closest bond. She said the fact Penguin needed her, gave her a reason to carry on.
Her photographer husband Cameron, 47, captured a series of stunning images of the magpie at home with the family, which was turned into a book and caught the eye of movie film producer Emma Cooper, a friend of the family.
Penguin, who was free to come and go, flew away in 2015.
While Bloom is more positive about the future she said she still feels like a failure to her three boys Noah, as well as Rueben, 16, and Oliver, 13, who all go to Northern Beaches Christian School.
“I’m not the mum I was before I went to Thailand,” Bloom said.
“I’m a bit grumpier and I complain more.
“I get frustrated and I hate the wheelchair.”
But she has achieved a lot since the accident to make her family proud including making it into the Australian ParaCanoe team and now the Australian Adaptive Surf team.
She is also learning to live an independent life and one of her lifesavers has been Sargood at Collaroy which is a facility for people with spinal cord injuries.
As well as being a hotel, offering the opportunity for people in wheelchairs to have a truly accessible facility, it also has a wheelchair accessible gym open to those with spinal cord injuries living in the community.
Mrs Bloom found out about it just over a year ago and says it is somewhere she goes when she needs to get out of the house or when she wants to “have a whinge”.
“It’s been a lifesaver,” Mrs Bloom said.
“Somewhere to come to talk to other people who have a spinal cord injury because however much people think they understand what it is like only someone in the same situation gets it.
“It’s a little community here, so supportive.”
Mrs Bloom hopes she will be able to bring Watts to Sargood for a workout with her.
While she works out at the gym twice a week, as well as a non-accessible one at Newport, where she needs a friend to give her a piggy back up the stairs and move her around the equipment, her ultimate aim is to walk again.
Mrs Bloom also hopes to get a place on a $15 million medical trial at the University of Technology Sydney, due to begin either in 2019 or 2020 depending on when the funds are raised. If she wins a spot she will be given an epidural spinal cord stimulator to bypass the damaged part of her back.
“I want to be standing by the time I’m 50,” she said.
For information on Sargood go to sargoodcollaroy.com.