Franciske Venter has cerebral palsy but, even though she has reason to find life challenging due to her disability, she takes life as a challenge and finds ways to live her dreams.
She was born with her disability and life was challenging from day one. She struggled to walk and she needed speech therapists from a very young age.
She initially went to a primary school for kids that did not have disabilities and she found it difficult and fell very quickly behind the rest of the kids due to her problems with her fine and gross motor skills. So she was moved to Pretoria Cerebral Palsy School where she could be close to her physiotherapist and where she could get individual treatment.
Franciske was always a busy kid and she needed something to help her deal with her frustrations and extra energy so she started to play sport. She started with javelin and shot put and after three months she got provincial colours in sport.
Sport was motivating for her, at first she did not want to be seen as disabled but then she started to make friends and she was able to talk to them about her disabilities. She realized that she could make a difference in sport.
She always wanted to play cricket but there was no cricket for kids with cerebral palsy. In 2003 she placed a picture of herself and the Proteas captain at the time, Hansie Cronje, in the Huisgenoot. This was spotted at the Titans Cricket Union and she was encouraged to go out and look for a form of cricket that she and others like her can play.
She did a little research and found that there was a format in India that she liked. She started her own club and introduced this form of cricket to South Africa.
A highlight in her life was in 2014 when India toured South Africa and she got to play against them. She learned a lot from the Indian side because they have been playing disabled cricket for a longer period of time and were far better than South Africa and they were willing to share.
She also coached KFC Mini-Cricket for kids with varying disabilities and she had to deal with a lot of challenges both physically and mentally.
Now she is busy writing a book with a ghost writer about herself and disabled cricket in South Africa. It is a large project and she is currently overwhelmed by it but she is not going to give up. She knows that it will help parent of disabled kids and it will help disabled kids know that they are not alone and be positive and they can achieve their goals.
Other than sport she has also had the opportunity to act in 7de Laan, a South African soap opera, as an extra. She want to take it seriously but she knows that there are challenges and it will be difficult for her to get a permanent role in a series or soap opera. Her next step is to take classes in acting and see how far she can get.
Her message is that if you have something in life that holds you back, don't give up and you can achieve your goals. You only live once and take advantage of every moment you get.
