Heath Francis was just 7 years old when he lost his right arm in a mincing incident on his family farm in Booral on the NSW mid north coast.
As a teenager his interest and incredible talent in athletics grew quickly with Heath travelling to the World Para Athletics Championships in Birmingham, UK in 1998 to compete in multiple sprint events.
“It was an amazing experience, and I far exceeded my own expectations of what I could achieve,” said Heath looking back.
“I was thrilled to come 4th in both the 200m and 400m events and to win a gold medal as part of the Australian 4 x 400m relay team.”
With the success, however, came the realization that the three athletes who had beaten him were all running with prosthetic arms.
17-year-old Heath knew exactly what he needed to chase his gold medal dreams – but it came at a cost.
“I needed a prosthetic arm but at that same time, my mum lost her job and as a single parent family, finances were tight,” said Heath.
“We didn’t have the surplus cash to be able to invest in an expensive prosthetic so that could have been the end of my Paralympic journey right there, had it not been for Variety.”
Heath’s mum applied for a Variety grant and they were both overjoyed when the application was successful.
“An incredible, life changing thing happened as a result of my Variety grant. We got a specialised prosthetic arm made specifically for running. The reason it was out of reach financially was that it used a new technology out of Iceland. This technology allowed for so much more movement and with my new arm – and a lot of training – I went on to win three gold and one silver medal at the 2000 Sydney Paralympics just two years later.”
“That arm made all the difference at the Sydney 2000 Paralympics. To put into perspective how important the prosthetic was, when I got the prosthetic 12 months out from the Sydney 2000 Games, I was running the 400m without the prosthetic in ~51.5s, but with it, just the following week I ran 50.8s, that’s 0.7 seconds faster. Now whilst that doesn’t sound like a lot, the difference between first and fourth in the 400m Final was 0.7 seconds. Had I not have had the prosthetic arm; I would not have won a medal, let alone the gold.”
Heath went on to have an incredible career, receiving a Medal of The Order of Australia (OAM) for his Sydney 2000 gold medals and achieving 13 medals across three Paralympic Games.
Heath says he will always be grateful to Variety for helping to change his life for the better.
“I will never forget the support that we got from Variety at a point when my life circumstances were making things very difficult for myself, and my family and tough decisions were needing to be made.”
“I would encourage everyone to celebrate Variety’s 50th anniversary and to support them however you can as you really do have the ability to change people’s lives. Yes, my story was about a big sporting dream, but it doesn’t matter however big or small a child’s dreams are. It could just be a child that has had a bit more adversity in their life than others and Variety helps to give that child the fullest and happiest life possible – and that’s a dream worth chasing.”
Variety has positively impacted more than two million children and their families – supporting children by providing funding for mobility equipment, therapy, medical services, educational resources, and more.