When a wheelchair-bound expat defied a rare condition to skydive

"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 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."

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 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,” adds 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

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.

"One fine day, Shobhika called us and started crying. She felt homesick and wanted to come back home, so we brought her back. But the treatment didn’t stop there. They sent a big box of medication that she didn’t want to take. From morning till night, she would need to have these bitter-tasting medication every 30 minutes. We were juggling the bottles, trying to make it work, until she turned around and said, ‘I don’t want to live like this.'”

Moved to tears, Dr Alka recounts that “all these different ways to find a cure for her situation had a very detrimental impact on Shobhika’s mental health”. “Despite being educated, you become such a fool when a situation like this arises. We were so desperate to just find a cure," she adds.