MISS Ability - Found

Posted by Jill Browne Feb 11, 2007

Hats off to Megan Drummond, who writes about Disabilities on Suite 101. I don't know how, but she tracked down the name of the woman who won the original Dutch disabled beauty contest, MISS Ability, which I wrote about back in December 2006.

Congratulations are in order to Roos Prommenschenkel. I regret not being able to speak Dutch, but I suspect that Roos's first name would be pronounced "Rose" in English.

Roos's disability is a condition called torticollis spasmodica.When I see that word "spasm", I know this must be an uncomfortable condition, and for some people (I don't know about Roos particularly), it is quite painful. It is one version of the family of conditions called dystonia, where the muscles don't do what they should.

It is not necessarily something you are born with. Another Dutch person, Rob Oele, describes in English (and in Dutch) on his website, how he came to develop the condition over a long time, and what he has done to try and cure it.

For Roos, the problem is that the muscles in her neck continually pull her head backward. The result is that she has to lie down or sit in her special wheelchair frequently. Otherwise, if she sits or stands for too long, she can't breathe.

Because of winning the TV contest, Roos has become a disability ambassador within the Netherlands. She talked about her job and the conditions for disabled people in Holland in a recent interview on the BBC, called Ouch!. A transcript of the program is available, with Roos beginning at page 51.

So, thanks again, Megan, for putting your research skills to work on that problem.