An inspirational wheelchair basketball player and disability rights activist who once made news for having to crawl off a Jetstar flight have unfortunately passed away, leaving behind her young son.
Natalie Curtis (Wheelchair Basketballer) Children: Did Natalie Curtis Have Kids?
She focused on new endeavors in the years that followed as she fought to rehabilitate, including getting married and adopting Malakai Curtis, who is now 4 years old. She did adopt Malakai after unsuccessful IVF attempts with her ex-husband.
The 34-year-old Natalie Curtis, a well-known entrepreneur, and athlete who ran the business Vital Supports and Supplies was a household name in Townsville.
Her story of having to crawl off an aircraft because Jetstar workers couldn’t give her a wheelchair went viral in October of last year. She had previously represented Australia in wheelchair basketball and was an active disability activist.
Ms. Curtis was involved in sports from a young age despite having spina bifida, a congenital abnormality in which the spinal cord fails to develop properly.
After her small sister tragically perished in the family’s backyard pool, she stopped swimming as a child.
She started playing wheelchair basketball when she was 14 and continued to practice until she was an adult. She later earned a berth on the Australian Gliders and won a silver medal at the 2013 Japan Oceania Championships.
However, after returning from the games to Townsville in a terrible vehicle accident, which left her with five spinal fractures, her hopes of competing on the world stage were destroyed.