A lifetime of pain

In 1895, three-year-old Eileen O’Connor and her younger sister Mary are being pushed in a pram. There is an accident and both girls tumble out. Two years later, Eileen is diagnosed with a fractured spine. While the accident was thought to be the cause of Eileen’s lifelong handicap, it is now known she suffered from transverse myelitis, an agonising inflammation of the spinal cord. Despite multiple operations, Eileen will endure extreme pain throughout her short life. This image shows Mrs Annie O’Connor with her two daughters, Eileen and Mary, outside their home, ‘Kinsale’, in Burnley, Victoria.