Samantha Wallace

Have you ever met someone who has PKU? I know most of you reading this would say yes, but I know lots of people who haven‟t heard anything at all about PKU until I tell them everything there is to know! And they wouldn't even know that PKU actually stands for Phenylketonuria and every reaction I get is „what‟ or „huh‟.

Well now I will tell you a little about me, myself and I in my story.

My name is Samantha Wallace and as you would already know I have PKU. I am 12 years old and I am enjoying my first year of high school. My favourite colour is purple and my hobbies are dancing, netball and orienteering.

I live on a farm near Dubbo in Central Western NSW, with my mum, my dad and my sister, Katie. Also a part of my family is my pet dog, Matilda and my sister‟s goldfish, Bubbles, Sushi, Goldie and Speckles. Oh, last but not least, mum would not let me forget our flock of 68 sheep and one alpaca called Wally, in the paddock.

My Nan, Pa, Uncle Bob and Aunty Kerry live on a property about 40 minutes away from us and we visit them all the time. They have hundreds of sheep and cattle, as well as crops. My Uncle owns and trains racehorses, as well.

My grandma, Uncle Robin, Aunty Sue and my cousins on the other hand live in Palmerston North on the North island of New Zealand. We have been over there twice to visit them and the second time was a special occasion. It was for my grandma‟s 80th birthday!

I am really interested in growing up (but not too fast!) to become a young adult and experience more in life! I would like to grow up to become a scientist when I am older to help all those people who are sick by finding a cure for cancer.

When I was little I used to get up to all sorts of things! I used to lie on the couch and drink my formula out of a bottle (warm of course). That was my favourite thing to do in the mornings. I used to want to be a vet or a swimming teacher when I was younger which I think is really cute!

I have lots of friends and they come over to my house for a sleep over sometimes. When they come over if I was to serve them a PKU meal I would cook them low protein pancakes for breakfast. But if I was to serve them a whole day of PKU food I would also serve them a toasted cheese sandwich for lunch that has low protein bread and cheese in it. For dinner I would give them PKU pasta and last but not least for desert I would make them mango sorbet or gelato with some sprinkles that don‟t contain much protein, I assure you.

PKU affects me in my everyday life in a positive way when I feel that I am special and don‟t have to be the same as everybody else. Also because when I go over to a friend‟s house I get to tell them all about my PKU and show and tell them what I can and can‟t eat and how I make my formula.

In a negative way PKU affects me the most when friends bring in chocolate birthday cakes and they totally forget that you can‟t have them at all. It also annoys me when people ask me why I eat different things to everyone else and you have to explain to everyone.

Some good ideas that I have come up with, just between you and I, is to con my dad into making and shaking my formula for me. That makes PKU a whole lot easier for me to manage! When we go away for sporting events we take a thermos and a pop up silicon bowl. We fill the bowl with boiling water and place in a steel camping mug into the bowl. Then we pour in my formula and then wait until it is heated to just the right temperature. (It would just kill me to drink it freezing cold!)

Well that was my story, the story of Samantha Wallace.
I hope you enjoyed it and learn something about how you can deal or talk about PKU!