Sports are incredibly important to people of all ages and for Darby Beeson, 9, it’s no different.
Despite being born with a congenital foot defect, sports are a big part of life for the nine-year-old student of Ecole Airdrie Middle School, and she continues to improve and grow each and every day.
Beeson is a busy young girl who enjoys many activities including CrossFit, roller derby and inline speed skating. Beeson even registered for ice speed skating, adding to her already busy schedule.
“(Ice speed skating) was really fun. I like it even more than inline speed skating,” Beeson said. “I like it because I’m not scared of falling because you just slide.
“Even on the floor you slide, but it hurts.”
At 18 weeks pregnant with Beeson, her mom Monica found out Beeson had a unilateral clubfoot – news she was not expecting to hear.
“No one ever talks about (clubfoot),” Monica said. “So when you first hear it and they use the word deformed, you’re like, ‘Oh, what does that mean?’
“It was a big surprise.”
Monica immediately started searching the internet for treatment methods for Beeson’s condition and came across a doctor at the Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster, B.C., by the name of Shafique Pirani, who was trained in a worldwide method of clubfoot correction.
“(Pirani) is an exceptional human being, he is amazing,” Monica said. “He can hold a baby and it will stop crying.
“He made everything feel so amazing (through the treatment).”
For the first four years of her life, Beeson wore a metal brace on her feet with a bar that separated the feet and twisted her right foot, casting it into position.
“When we went to go see Dr. Pirani, he said (Beeson) was ideal. Everything was perfect (for the treatment),” Monica said.
When Beeson was four, Monica was instructed she could take off the brace and the treatment was complete.
However, a year after taking off the brace, Beeson, who had begun playing hockey, relapsed and her foot started to go back to its shape at birth.
“There was really no explanation except that genetically (her) foot wanted to curve in, because that’s how her genetics were created to grow and do,” Monica said.
Beeson had to undergo surgery to adjust her foot – but since then, she has remained a fun-loving, active child.
“(Beeson) has to keep moving. She has to have an hour of activity a day or else she goes crazy,” Monica said. “I’m really proud of her.”
