http://city-north-messenger.whereilive.com.au/news/story/pearl-jam-lends-hand
by cloe kennedy
AS PEARL Jam belted out State of Love and Trust at Adelaide Oval, Collinswood wheelchair athlete Melissa Leckie had no idea she would soon be closer to reaching the 2012 London Paralympics.
“But then the band pulled out this letter and before they even opened it I knew,” Leckie says.
In front of more than 20,000 people, Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder read the letter from 25 year old Leckie, detailing her plight to fund her passage to the Paralympics.
Vedder then promised the band’s support, offering her “a couple of grand” to help make it to London.
“I was crying and I couldn’t even speak,” Leckie told the City North Messenger a few days after the November 17 concert.
“I nearly fell out of my wheelchair.
“I’m an Australian asking Americans to help me get to the Paralympics, I mean, there is nothing in it for them.
“It’s like being in the Paralympics - you wonder did it really happen.”
Leckie, who is paralysed from the stomach down, represented Australia at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics in hand cycling, where she came sixth and eighth.
“I am arms only (athlete), I don’t have any stomach muscles and I was competing with people that could kneel.”
She spent the months leading up to the Games busking with her bike in Rundle Mall so she could afford to go.
Knowing how difficult it would be to get to the London Games, Leckie wrote a letter to her number one band Pearl Jam in the hope they would be able to help.
“A couple of days before (the concert) I decided to write this in a letter to Pearl Jam and sent one to Vedder, Jeff (Ament), Stone (Gossard), Mike (McCready) and Matt (Cameron).
“One of the letters I even threw over the fence outside their (tour) vans.
“I had absolutely no idea if they had even received it or read it.
“I thought if you don’t ask, you don’t really know (what can happen).”
Leckie says the boost has come at the perfect time, as she is nearing the end of her teaching degree at the University of South Australia and is ready to get back into full-time training.
“In front of 20,000 people, that’s the biggest publicity possible for me.
“It will definitely get me back into gear.
“As far as motivation goes, if this isn’t the biggest kick up the arse I don’t know what is.”
Pearl Jam is well-known for its charity work and political activism, including raising money for various health and environmental causes and encouraging more Americans to vote.
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