00:00Nate Woolgar was never a big lover of the pool.
00:05Before this program I could not swim at all.
00:08But now he's hunting new personal bests and is a frequent swimmer at competitions.
00:13Nice work, big deep breaths.
00:17It is a really big portion of my life and I do really enjoy coming here and I don't
00:25see myself slowing down any time soon.
00:27The 23-year-old has been a pilot participant of the University of Queensland's ParaStart
00:32research program for young people with severe cerebral palsy.
00:37We started with three participants, we're now at 27 participants and we have a 0% dropout
00:45rate.
00:46They were given a competitive swimming program designed for para-athletes.
00:50This includes 2-3 pool sessions, strength, diet and sleep training.
00:56We measured our participants' gross motor function at the time they were enrolled and
01:01our participants, if they'd just maintained their gross motor function that would have
01:05been a positive outcome, but actually our participants improved gross motor function.
01:11The benefits aren't just physical.
01:13The social connections, the independence, so getting here on his own, getting all his
01:18gear sorted, his safety etc, it's life changing.
01:24Data was collected over four years, now researchers hope to expand.
01:30We think that there's a real prospect that findings that we've got with such strong science
01:35behind it, we're in a position to really change practice, how people with cerebral palsy are
01:40managed across Australia.
01:43Sport has a lot of therapeutic benefits.
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