Tuggeranong schoolgirl Marcie O'Brien was less than a day old when her tiny legs were encased in plaster, from toe to hip.
It was just the start of a 17-year journey to treat a condition called talipes, more commonly known as "clubfoot".
From birth, her feet were turned inward and would require years of treatment to correct. There was surgery and physiotherapy. For months at a time, she had to wear a device called a "bar and boots" which kept her feet pointed outwards.
She regularly had to endure further full-length plaster casts to stretch her tendons, meaning she was often confined to a wheelchair as she got older. But that was then, this is now.
Now 17 and officially discharged from all treatment, Marcie is a poised and resilient teenager ready to give back.
She has generously decided to share her story on Can Give Day on Thursday, the big fundraising day for the Canberra Hospital Foundation, not least to give some hope to other young people with talipes.
"I also wanted to help the hospital. I know the things that helped me, like the games the physios played. It was really cool," she said.
"As a child to be in the hospital all the time wasn't easy and I probably wasn't the greatest kid but those kind of things [like the games] helped."
A Year 11 student at Merici College, Marcie is a typical busy teenager. And her feet no longer hold her back. She loves dancing at Fresh Funk in Tuggeranong and has a part-time job waitressing at Little Istanbul in Greenway, with 16-year-old sister Louisa.
"[Dancing] is something I love to do. So I'm really lucky my feet didn't impact on what I loved to do," she said.
The early years of treatment were difficult for the family, driving hours each week from their then home in Gunnedah to a hospital in Newcastle.
"It was a lot, with your first baby," mum Melissa said. "She had surgery at five weeks' old and [dad] John had to take her in, because I couldn't do it."
When Marcie and her family moved to Canberra seven years ago, her treatment continued at the Canberra Hospital and they all came in contact with the kindness of the Canberra Hospital Foundation, a charity that raises money for programs, equipment and research to help ease the lot of the patient and their family.
The foundation has funded everything from calming murals to upper limb robotics to state-of-the-art equipment for dementia patients.
Marcie remembers toys and games that diverted her attention from the pain of her treatment. Rooms that didn't feel like a hospital. Even something like a fun plaster print that could lift her mood.
"CHF helps with things that make treatment nicer - not just the regular medical needs, but the extras that make a real difference," she said
The foundation aims to raise $350,000 at Can Give Day, with events, including Canberra's hospitality king, Omar Muscat, shaving his head on Thursday afternoon after raising more than $50,000 himself.
- Donations to Can Give Day can be made here.
