Magaret..the wheeler chair girl with silver stroke

She was neither born with the proverbial ‘Silver Spoon’ in her mouth nor was she born with a Wheel Chair under her bum. Though born into a not-too-rich family in Imo State, she still, like every other child had to learn the ropes of crawling before standing, walking, lifting the spoon on its to and fro trips to the mouth and natural mystics.

Margaret grew up as other children do; developing well as others.  But, along the line… somewhere along the line, Margaret fell sick (“So my mummy told me”), and that was all.She lost her two feet and got paralysed from the trunk down to her feet. “I come from a family where I am loved and cherished.  I am treated warmly and tenderly not because of my misfortunes but more because I am also warm and tender,” Margaret told nigeriasports in our Lagos office.

Perhaps the evergreen love for her by her family may have stemmed from the fact that besides being a member of the Okoko family and the need to show and express more love to her, following Polio attack, Margaret’s unquenchable thirst for fame and insurmountable lust for sports contributed handsomely.

“I am not a lazy person.  I have loved to be famous from my youthful days and I realized that the only one way to stardom and fame is through sports.  There could be other ways but sports had and still is my best choice,” Others in her shoes could seek and find their path to fame through other ways and means, little Mar-ga-ri-ta (coinage is ours) said.

She confessed she had nursed the hope of   becoming a table tennis player one day when she was still a kindergarten. So, she had developed the love for the tennis bat also from youth.  “So like the old adage of “slow and steady, wins a race”, I started learning the art of  what the Chinese call Ping Pong and I gradually came to terms with the egg, bat, table and the skills in swerving forth and back on the wheelchair,” recalled Margaret whose surname OKOKO means “BEAUTIFUL FLOWERS”.

Her first encounter with the real test on the table where tennis is played was at IMO ’98 National Sports Festival in Owerri, the Imo State capital.  As a baptism, Margaret won 2 bronze medals.  The girl was not done.  She had her mind set on higher heights and she was already dreaming silver and gold.

Then came EDO 2002 and for the urge and zeal for it, the beautiful flower started blooming.  Bang, bang she served smashed and stroked on until she wrestled home 1 gold and 2 silver medals in her class.

These would not do for the light skinned fame-hungry Maggie… she pushed her luck farther and worked harder.   Her dream height of fame was rather moving nearer.  Or was it she who was driving nearer fame on the wheels of her chair?

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