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Onyx strong despite brittle bones

Published:Monday | October 3, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Onyx Matthison takes part in the St Andrew finals of The Gleaner's Children's Own Spelling Bee at Bethel United church hall in Kingston. - Ian Allen/Photographer

She quietly awaited her turn. If at any point she felt in danger of being overlooked, she would calmly raise her hands to remind of her presence, never a flicker of discomfiture. Like the precious stone for which she was named, her face was a picture of serenity.

Onyx Matthison was the only one of the 52 spellers in the St Andrew finals of The Gleaner's Children's Own Spelling Bee competition who was allowed to sit. This was because the 12-year-old girl is afflicted with osteogenesis imperfecta - more commonly, brittle bone disease - a rare, usually inherited disease which impairs bone-mass development and causes bones to break easily. The disease has caused Onyx to be confined to a wheelchair, at least most of the time.

"I can walk sometimes but not very far," she shared with The Gleaner.

Her lack of mobility could not have kept her from the spelling competition though, because, according to her, "I would love to see what it's like to win."

Onyx is a student at Hope Valley Experimental School in Mona, St Andrew, an institution which is home to physically challenged and able-bodied children alike.

Affected all her life

According to teacher Kadian Johnson, approximately 20 per cent of the school's population is afflicted with physical disabilities, such as cerebral palsy and brittle bone disease, which Onyx has had almost all her life.

"She was a very active child and she tried to walk at six months. One day I put her in the crib and noticed her crying and standing on one leg," said her mom, Karen Brown. It was then that Onyx was diagnosed with the disease.

"When her father heard that she had a disability, he stepped (left the family)," the single mother explained.

"I had to do what I had to do for my child," Brown went on to say. This included staying home with her for 10 years.

"I couldn't allow anyone to stay with her," Brown told The Gleaner, expressing that "She is truly a blessing."

Despite, having had multiple fractures during her life, causing her to be hospitalised for weeks on end, Onyx, who wants to attend Campion College, has managed to maintain a good academic record.

"She started Hope Valley at grade two, and has been at the top of her class ever since," the proud mom related.

"She does very well in school; she's an all-rounder," her teacher, Johnson, concurred.

Johnson said the aspiring lawyer gets along well with her peers at school, and she is well adjusted.

Onyx admits there are a few drawbacks in that she "cannot play as usual and I cannot do the things that are too rough".

But though she is confined to a wheelchair at school, Brown allows her daughter to move about at home under her careful supervision, and she said that the initial anxiety she felt in sending Onyx out to school has abated as she has got older.

The petite mother, who cares for her niece and nephew in addition to Onyx, said she was also a victim of brittle bone disease at a young age, but she is no longer afflicted. She expects the same in her daughter's case.

"When she gets to 14, 15, that will be minimised ... . She will become stronger."

Brittle bone disease manifests itself in the bones' inability to properly produce collagen which leads to multiple fractures. The disease is said to affect six to seven in every 100,000 people worldwide. The severity of the condition is dependent on the type which ranges from I-VIII. Type I is the mildest form while type II is the most severe. Fracture rate is said to diminish as one enters adolescence.

tennesia.malcolm@gleanerjm.com