Fate put dedicated mum on right path

Jan Ajduk is always out fundraising to help our Mid West kids who are at a disadvantage or living with a disability.

Ms Ajduk’s dream was always to be a loving wife and a mother to a soccer-team worth of kids.

After getting married and having her first child at 23, she was well on her way to getting everything she always wanted.

Now, her son, Mitchell, is in his 20s, lives in Melbourne as an accountant and is enjoying travelling the globe for his job.

Her daughter Kaitlin is an independent and fun loving 28- year-old, who most people would recognise as a long-term employee at the Geraldton Regional Library.

As well as being an avid animal-lover and social butterfly, Kaitlin also happens to have Down syndrome.

Ms Ajduk wasn’t aware her daughter had the condition until Kaitlin was diagnosed at just 10 days old.

But what’s truly remarkable about Ms Ajduk’s story is the attitude she took to being told her child had a disability.

Instead of looking down on the news, she took it in her stride and turned her plan of having a soccer-team into giving as much love and attention to her two, as would be worth dished out to 10.

As a stay at home mum, she helped her daughter to grow and learn in any way she could, even using a plank of wood as a balance beam to help her daughter to walk.

With the support of her family and friends, years later, her daughter’s personality outshines any disability she may have.

And it’s that personality Ms Ajduk wishes more people would recognise over a disability.

“My daughter is a beautiful, vibrant young lady who just happens to have Down syndrome,” she said.

“She’s my right hand lady and she’s always there to help me with something to do with Variety or just in general.

“Her disability is something she has, not something that defines who she is.

"It’s something I really want more people to understand."

It wasn’t because of Kaitlin, but rather a want for people to understand her message that pushed Ms Ajduk into signing on the Variety committee in 2006.

From there, she took over as branch president, before moving into her current full-time role of regional co-ordinator.

Also prompting her to take on the role was the drive for people who have a child with a disability, to understand they’re not alone.

She said though she had always known Variety had existed, when she was young and caring for Kaitlin, she hadn’t realised the help available to her.

“Variety has always been something I’ve known about through Telethon and things like that, but I didn’t realise how much help I could have received if I’d just asked for it,” she said.

“I do this not because of Kaitlin, but rather for the other kids out there who could be receiving so much help and for the parents who may need a hand.

“I think I was given Kaitlin for a reason.

“It’s the hand I was dealt and I think it’s fate’s way of leading me in to a job where I can help so many others.

“I have a lot to give and this job is how I do that.”