Rural woman Samantha Longmore wins Shine Awards after rebuilding life from horror crash
Samantha Longmore has won the Shine Awards celebrating the achievements of rural women. For the competitive waterskier, business owner and qualified counsellor it is the latest accolade in a ‘big, massive life’.
“I’m living life full speed,” Samantha Longmore says. Her credentials as a competitive international waterskier, qualified counsellor, bartender, agricultural supplier and owner of several small businesses make the statement hard to question – not to mention she does it all with just one working limb.
Twelve years ago Ms Longmore had two car accidents in under 45 minutes. Driving exhausted on the Barton Highway from Canberra one Sunday morning after a night shift bartending, she fell asleep at the wheel and crashed into the roadside guardrail, throwing her car on to its roof.
It was bitter irony that the ambulance driver who collected her was equally exhausted, rear-ending another car during a micro-nap and throwing Ms Longmore’s battered body into the front seats.
The dual ordeals mutilated her spinal cord, left her wheelchair-bound and paralysed the whole right side of her body.
The Yass, NSW local, now 32, told The Australian that her “vast abundance of determination” led her to a disastrous point of exhaustion – but it was also what got her life back on track.
“After losing a lot of my independence with my accident, I’ve gained a lot of it back, and I’m now back being that person that my friends and family can rely on,” she said while looking out across Lake Mulwala, a reservoir on the Murray River where dead trees sprout from the water.
“But the first thing that’s on my mind every minute of every day is to look after myself, because what’s the point of living this full life if I’m just going to put myself in the same decision that landed me here in the first place?
“I have to catch myself, and I scare myself, because I say yes too often. I want to live this big, massive life, but sometimes there’s just not enough hours in the day.”
Ms Langmore has emerged from her adversity as a self-made rural polymath. After teaching herself to knit one-handed “over a few glasses of wine”, she started selling her handcrafted goods and was soon the proud owner of a flourishing business that took her around the speaking circuit.
Next she searched for a sport fitted to her new circumstances, trying wheelchair rugby and tennis. “But because of my disability, they’re not sports that I can really do,” she said.
“I was a sporty person before I had my accident and I was never a competitive waterskier, but I used to like it. But waterskiing for me is a sport I can do and that I really love – and now I’m really bloody good at it.”
Her knitting business and career in waterskiing are just small portions of the life she rebuilt for herself. Ms Langmore also operates three mobile bars and an agricultural weed-spraying business.
Her role as the oldest of 12 siblings also feels like a full-time job, she says.
“Our home is a bit of a halfway house for struggling human beings,” she said.
For her courage, Ms Langmore was named on Wednesday the winner of the Shine Awards, a prize recognising the extraordinary achievements of rural women. The prize from the Weekly Times – which shares a publisher with The Australian – and Harvey Norman is now in its ninth year.
Ms Langmore is gearing up for the waterskiing world championships, and after that – she mentions offhandedly – she has decided to go skydiving.
“I won’t become a professional skydiver,” she said. “But I can tell you right now, I will get thrown out of that plane, and I will enjoy it. I just think if we all have a bit of a crack, we’re all going to get somewhere – and it doesn’t matter how fast that happens.”
The other category winners were Fuel for Schools founders Paula Pool and Demelza Garden of Townsville, Queensland; Isolated Children’s Parents Association president Louise Martin of Tambo, Queensland; Aussie Hay Runners founder Linda Widdup of Carlisle River, Victoria; counsellor Melanie Jolley of Victor Harbor, South Australia; mustering pilot Ainslee Logan of Fitzroy Crossing, Western Australia; and mental health fundraiser Carlee Knight of Bairnsdale, Victoria.
To join the conversation, please log in. Don't have an account? Register
Join the conversation, you are commenting as Logout