Dubai: Wheelchair-bound expat defies rare inherited disease, skydives to honour mother

An overachiever growing up, Shobhika Kalra was a star student, who excelled in both academics and extracurriculars. With her zest for life, she revelled in singing, running, jumping, and dancing, embracing every opportunity to experience the world to its fullest. Whether it was a pageant or a sports competition, Shobhika's unyielding determination propelled her to victory, as settling for anything less than first place was never an option.

However, at the age of 13, the trajectory of this ambitious Indian expatriate, filled with grand aspirations, took an unforeseen turn. Initially dismissed as mere clumsiness or a result of her newfound fascination with high heels, Shobhika began stumbling and falling with increasing frequency. Concerned, her parents decided to seek medical advice, assuming it would be a minor issue that could be resolved with medication. Little did they know that the series of routine tests they underwent would deliver news far from what they had anticipated.

A rare genetic condition

Shobhika got diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder called Friedreich’s Ataxia, which causes progressive loss in muscle strength. The degenerative disease leads to irreversible damage to the spinal cord, peripheral nerves and the cerebellum portion of the brain. Following the diagnosis, the doctors told the family that she would not live more than 4-5 years. The soul-destroying news came completely out of the blue, recalls her mother. “We were told that soon she’d have to be on a wheelchair and that it's a terminal disorder. There was no cure for it,” says Dr Alka, who’s a psychologist by profession. "They said, ‘You expect that she can go any time.'"

"Since the heart is also a muscle, they said that it could collapse any time, causing a fatal attack," says Dr Alka. After taking in this life-altering news, the family took a long time to come to terms with their new reality. As one could imagine, the road to acceptance, which lasted more than a year, was anything but easy. Bit by bit, Shobhika started to lose her muscle strength as her family watched their daughter struggle, unable to offer any real solution to her pain and suffering.

But the story that followed led Shobhika to become an inspiration to and a beacon of true grit, resilience and determination. In a recent feat, the disability campaigner, who's now 32, went skydiving to honour her mother's 60th birthday celebrations. And even though she suffers from a condition that's withering away her physical strength, what remains undeterred is her will power and mental toughness, to achieve whatever it is she sets her mind to.

The skydiving adventure

Shobhika, who’s been wanting to go skydiving for a while now, mentions that this finally seemed like “the perfect time to go ahead and do it". She continues, "I was ready at 5am sharp, eager to finally make it happen. It was an amazing experience." For the disability advocate, who takes pride in being an adrenal junkie, this isn't the worst time she's tried and adventure sport as her quest for seeking adventure goes back to her first time scuba-diving.

However, more than the physical thrill of such adrenaline-infused sports, what resonates with her is the ability to break free from mental boundaries. “I don’t want people to dictate what I can or cannot do," says Shobhika. “Ever since I got diagnosed with the disorder, all people said to me was what I could or could not do, as a result of the condition. Whether it’s the doctors or people around you, nobody has the right to set boundaries on your life."

"But more than them, I wanted to do this for myself, to prove it to myself that all those people who tried to set boundaries for me were wrong," she adds.

“The people there told me that when I jump off the plane is when the photographer will click my photos. So, very honestly, I was too busy smiling and posing at that point,” she laughs. It is with this sense of humour and a beaming smile that Shobhika takes on all the challenges that life continues to throw her way.

The warrior mindset

When it came to jumping off the aircraft, Shobhika says she had no qualms about it. "Compared to what you deal with every day as a person of determination, this is actually nothing. The challenges I face on a daily basis are far greater,” says Shobhika. “The staff at Skydive Dubai was extremely supportive. I couldn’t have done this without them.They didn’t doubt for a second whether I’d be able to pull this off or not. Neither did I."

The landing post-skydiving, tandem or otherwise, often requires you to run on your feet as you touch the ground. When asked how Shobhika overcame this challenge, she responds, “The instructors at Skydive Dubai are very well-trained. My skydiving instructor put his legs below mine and raised my legs, so we could land on our hip. It didn’t cause any jerk or discomfort. It was very smooth.”

“It was a beautiful sight to see. Everyone who was present at the venue gave them a standing ovation," her mother adds. "These are not just adventure sports, it’s a way of life. The kind of momentum achieving something like this gives you is unparalleled,” says Dr Alka, co-founder of Eduscan, an organisation that works extensively with young kids in summer camps all across the UAE to foster a mindset of leadership from an early age. “I strongly believe that leaders are not born but made,” says Dr Alka.

Shobhika, who's a psychologist by profession, has blossomed into the person she always aspired to be. With over 100,000 followers on her TikTok account, she's an active disability campaigner and model in the UAE, who has single-handedly redefined what being a ‘Person of Determination’ truly entails.

Rising above adversity

Founding her own social initiative called Wings of Angelz with her elder sister Ruchika Kalra, Shobhika has facilitated the development of over 1,000 ramps across the UAE, to achieve better accessibility for wheelchair-bound people of determination. Becoming the RTA ambassador, she has been lauded by the Government of Dubai for her efforts to spread awareness around these challenges, earning her a textbook chapter by Dubai School of Government, dedicated to her inimitable efforts, promoting the well-being of differently-abled people in society.

However, looking back at the trials the family faced initially after Shobhika’s diagnosis, her mother admits that things weren’t always as positive as they seem now. “We went through a dark phase,” says Dr Alka, adding that there was a time when they turned to alternative medicine because allopathy offered no cure for her condition. “Ayurveda, homeopathy, you name it, we’ve tried it. We even took her to a renowned Ayurvedic clinic in Kerala, India. Shobhika stayed back in the ashram for six months," says Dr Alka.

somya@khaleejtimes.com