The GAME CHANGERS

Sam Bloom

Eight years ago, Sam Bloom was enjoying a holiday in Thailand with her family when tragedy struck. While taking in the view on a rooftop deck, Bloom, then 41, leaned against a rotted balcony railing, which gave way and sent her plummeting over six metres to the concrete below. Shattering her spine and fracturing her skull in several places, the mum-of-three was paralysed from the chest down and was told she would never walk again. Bloom quickly hit rock bottom. But it was the unlikely arrival of an injured magpie, as told in this year’s film Penguin Bloom, that pulled her out of her depression and inspired her to start her recovery. She has since gone on to be part of Australia’s paracanoe team, and last year won her second world championship as part of Australia’s adaptive surf team.“Penguin opened my eyes and my heart. She helped me to be my best self, or at least my worst self far less often,” she has said.“I always tell people – don’t put your dreams on