Photos: Emily Chalk
As a child, Kris Edwards decided he didn’t want to be disabled, refusing all help, and stubbornly forging his own path, then struggling as a result. But five decades on, that disability has become a tool to help others.
Born 12 weeks early and weighing under 1kg, Kris had a rough start.
“At the time, I was the smallest baby ever to survive, which was terrifying for my parents,” says Kris, 55, who has cerebral palsy (CP), a congenital disorder caused by damage or abnormal development in the parts of the brain that control the body’s movement. “Mum went into hospital with a sore back and came out with me!”
The Breeze radio host and podcaster’s form of the condition is called diplegia, which affects his legs, giving him “‘an obvious CP walk”.
Growing up, Kris adapted as best he could, but his school years were tough.
“No one bullied me, but people do exclude you,” he tells. “Kids would always pick me last for sports teams. I remember once people made me collect rubbish when the others were at cross country.”
The frustrated youngster often wondered what it’d be like to be able-bodied.
“I wanted to do everything others could – ride a bike, run fast, go to the Olympics,” reveals Kris. “I didn’t want to listen to people telling me what I couldn’t do. There was a lot of inner conflict. I think people with disabilities often suffer in silence.”
So on leaving school at 17, a radio career looked appealing. “I was perfectly happy to hide away in a studio by myself.”
Things changed a few years later, however, when he met Caroline, a travel professional and keen baker.
“My friend and I would listen to Kris on late-night radio on 89FM,” recalls Caroline, 52, who’s mum to the couple’s son Caleb, 12, and Zac, 20, from a previous relationship. “I fell in love with his voice, so one night, after we’d made muffins, we rang the radio station and asked Kris if he’d like to come over for a muffin. And he did!”
The couple began dating intermittently, finally getting together properly in 2008 and marrying in 2012.
“Kris is an awesome human – his having cerebral palsy didn’t faze me in the slightest,” says Caroline.
While Kris worried he might pass CP onto his future kids, Caroline didn’t give it a second thought.
“When we started talking about a future together, I did a bit of reading and learned CP is often due to birth difficulties. Either way, it didn’t bother me. I just wanted to be with Kris and I knew he’d be a great dad.”
Kris adds, “When Caleb was born, the first thing I looked at was his little legs. It was always in the back of my mind as CP can occasionally happen in the womb.”
Kris breathed a sigh of relief when Caleb arrived fit and healthy, but becoming a parent presented a new set of problems.
Explains Kris, “I felt massively responsible for him and how he sees the world. When you have a disability, you have to think about how you’ll carry a baby, how you can be a good parent – all that stuff.”
Now settled into family life, Kris still found it hard to talk about his CP. Then a few months ago, a work colleague approached him.
“He has a seven-year-old girl with cerebral palsy and we got talking – about him being a parent to someone with CP and me being a parent with it,” he recalls. “I realised I could use my experience to help others and ask questions that others can’t or won’t.”
So Kris created The Cerebral Palsy Podcast, which discusses all aspects of the disorder from different perspectives.
“I’ve met some incredible people, some of whom have more severe CP than I do,” tells Kris, citing Troy Robertson, a non-verbal, wheelchair-bound 24-year-old. “Troy is amazing and has an incredible outlook on life. With this podcast, I give the CP community a voice.”
Kris himself is pretty inspirational – last August, he did the Step Up Challenge, climbing Auckland’s Sky Tower stairs to raise money for Leukaemia and Blood Cancer NZ, beating his previous time by more than five minutes. “It was hard, but while I’ve finally learned to accept my limitations, it’s important to keep trying.”
This is the advice he gives to parents of kids with CP.
“Encourage them to do things,” he says. “It’s easy to worry about your child getting hurt, but they have to get out there, push themselves and learn to believe in themselves. Yes, having a disability can be hard, but never give up.”
Listen to Kris on The Breeze weekdays from 3pm. The Cerebral Palsy Podcast is available on Rova.
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