The Para Discus thrower from Papua New Guinea was faced with no choice but to swim when her village in rural Cape Rodney in Central Province was inundated with water last year.

"I went home to have a holiday with my family, and there was heavy rainfall and a big flood in my village," said Edward who needed to travel from home to her training base, more than six hours away. 

And there was only one way to get down to the main road. 

"I couldn't get back through to my team-mates, my coaches, who were all at work. I had to try my best to swim through the flood," the 36-year-old explained.

"It took about 30 minutes.

"It was so deep and I was so scared, because the flood water was so strong. My dad, my sister and my two big brothers were with me. We all swam across on one big tube.

"We keep them in the house because when the road is not available in bad weather, we normally use those tubes to cross over the rivers.” 

Even after hauling herself out of the water, there was no let-up or relief. Edward then faced the usual six-hour drive back to her training base in Port Moresby on the back of a ‘PMV’ – one of the shared open tray trucks which have no timetable and only set off when they are full.

'Anything is possible'

"Reggie's shown a lot of the young girls and boys with disability that anything's possible," the Papua New Guinea coach, Paul Bannister, said.

"She's the epitome of hard work and she's the epitome of never giving up in relation to the hurdles she may face in getting to training and doing other things. 

"Funding is not there for her, but she continues to turn up. Even bus fares are not paid sometimes, and it's hard for her to get around compared to other countries. Where she lives in PNG, there is no public transport. For her to even train, it's a long drive on pretty average roads." 

Edward is part of GAPS, a Commonwealth Sport programme that partners athletes and coaches to strengthen pathways across the region. Not even the commitment of coach Bannister and Edward however, could propel the PNG athlete up the leaderboard on Wednesday night. She ended ended 10th out of 10 in the Women’s Discus F42, a competition won with a world record throw of 39.66m by Nigeria’s Goodness Nwachukwu.

It was not the result Edward was after but the mitigating factors have been piling up. 

"I work hard but I face many challenges during my training," Edward, who competed in Para Powerlifting at Delhi 2010 and is a useful Para Badminton player, said simply.

"I'm good in javelin, I'm not really good in shot put and discus. I did discus here because that was the only class. I enjoyed it, but it was very challenging.

"I want to say thank you to my supporters and families in PNG. I'm very honoured to be here taking part in the Commonwealth Games."