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8 | InTouch APRIL 2022 Formulating my own skincare, and happiness HELPING PEOPLE ON THEIR LIFE’S JOURNEY Thanks to a grant from the Bradley Jenkin Memorial Fund, Wai Thant-Cyn is expanding on her love of learning and wellness. FEATURE Top: With my family in 1997 living in a Housing NZ home in Auckland. Above: My shelf of ingredients and equipment. My name is Waimon Thant-Cyn (Wai for short) and last year I decided to start my own skincare brand calledWAI Skin & Body. I am 39-years-old living with a neuromuscular condition called Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA Type 3) and I use an electric wheelchair for mobility. I grew up in an impoverished third world country called Myanmar (aka Burma) before migrating to New Zealand when I was 10 years old. Before I was correctly diagnosed with SMA in New Zealand, my mum thought I was being lazy for not walking around like the other kids and I’d get beatings for not exercising enough. Growing up in Burma, a place where either you keep up or get left behind, and being raised by a no-nonsense mum, my disability was invisible to me. Yes, I knew I was different to the other kids but using my disability as an excuse was unacceptable to my mum and slowly, I stopped making excuses. I did my very best in everything – school and daily exercises despite its lack of effectiveness. My parents brought us to New Zealand with big hopes that I would be cured by western medicine. When this did not happen and I was diagnosed with SMA at age 11, my whole world came crashing down. Life was tough as a pre-teen in a new country, and I had trouble fitting in. I had trouble adjusting to being in a wheelchair and learning a new language. I had a spinal surgery when I was 12 and from that time on, I was in and out of hospitals for most of my high school years. My grades fell, and I was very depressed. After high school, I got my act together and managed to get into Auckland University of Technology where
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