Football, tick, cricket, tick, swimming, tick, playing the drums, tick.
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Pretty normal stuff for a typical 10-year-old Orange boy.
But Knox Gibson is not your typical Colour City guy.
For starters he is an amputee, as his T-shirt cheekily announces, “Look Ma, No Hands.”
Well, actually, he has a left hand, but rather than let a disability get him down Knox is making sure all his abilities and assets are working for him.
Knox has started a modelling career appearing in advertisements, in a fashion parade, on a TV show and in a magazine.
His mother, Kate, said Knox had been signed to work with the Starting With Julius group who promote advertising without discrimination against people with a disabililty, had done an advertisement for a Singapore company, was in K-Mart’s last Christmas advertisement and was involved with an international children’s modelling magazine.
She said he had also appeared in an international children’s fashion parade in Melbourne.
“He was the only child with a disability included,” she said.
His latest achievement was appearing in a TV show, What’s It Like to Have a Disability screened on the ABC Me network this month.
Mrs Gibson said Knox’ siblings Hamish, 13, and Arabella 11, are joining his TV experience by appearing with Knox in a follow-up program, What’s It Like to Have a Brother or Sister with a Disability, which is screening at 7.30pm on Sunday November 5, on ABC Me.
Knox said he loved playing sport, playing the drums with the aid of a prosthetic limb and growing his burgeoning modelling career.
“When I was younger I just thought I was going to be a normal kid and grow up like a normal kid,” he said.
“If you put your mind to it, you can do anything.”
So, naturally the Year 4 student at Catherine McAuley Catholic Primary School has lofty ambitions.
“I want to be an actor and act in movies, or I want to play football for Australia.”
And he wants to swim for Australia, aiming to compete in the Paralympics.
He recently made it into an all-schools state level swimming multi-class competition.
“I came second and in the breaststroke a kid beat me by three milliseconds,” he said.
Just another step on a remarkable journey.
