Politically-active cantonal employee voted Paraplegic of the Year

A future member of the cantonal parliament and an employee at the Department of Inner-Cantonal Affairs, Manuela Leemann, has been voted “Paraplegic of the Year 2018” by the Swiss Paraplegic Foundation, along with Max Jung, an entrepreneur from Thun in the canton of Bern.

For 26 years now, the foundation has been presenting such awards to those paraplegics who have shown particular courage in the face of difficulties, the jury considering this year’s winners, like those in the past, to have been examples for others in the same situation to emulate

Both Leeman and Jung (in the centre in the photograph) were presented with their awards on the occasion of the recent annual Advent concert held at the Swiss Paraplegics’ Centre in Nottwil in the canton of Lucerne.

It was in1997 that Manuela Leeman, then aged 16, fractured one of her vertebra in a skiing accident in Arosa in the canton of Graubünden; since this time she has been a tetraplegic. Despite these injuries, and after nine months spent in rehabilitation, she returned to school and went on to pass her school-leaving examination. She then studied law in Fribourg and spent a further year in Australia, returning with an LLM in Australian Law.

Since 2013, the now 37-year-old has been employed at the Department of Inner-Cantonal Affairs, having recently been promoted to deputy head of the legal service there. What is more, she is politically active and, as from next year, she will sit both in the cantonal parliament and on the greater city council.

Speaking about her efforts and high level of determination at the award ceremony in Nottwill, Guido A. Zäch, the honorary chairman of the SPF (on the right in the photograph), said she was also intent on highlighting the predicaments of others, like her, who are confined to wheelchairs, as she already does on a number of committees.

Max Jung, now 66 years old, was a successful athlete but, as Heinz Frei (on the left in the photograph) explained, in1968, he had a serious accident and crashed to the floor. He was in plaster for a long time and has undergone no fewer than 23 operations. While still wearing an orthopaedic corset, the then 17-year-old went on to complete his apprenticeship in precision mechanics but never felt quite at home working in a workshop for the handicapped, so in 1978 he set up his own business, using his training to develop, for example, a wheelchair suitable for taking into a shower, a tilting chair, hand crank equipment and special brakes, all contributing to making life for the disabled that bit easier.