On the 29 March 2014, Monique was a university social event when she fell approximately 20 metres from a fifth-floor balcony. She woke from an induced coma one week later in the Royal Melbourne Hospital.

"My last memory was going downstairs with one drink in my hand, that's all I was planning on drinking that night," she said.

Monique woke up to see her mum and dad, who are divorced and live in two separate cities in different states, nowhere near Melbourne, she was immediately worried.

She wanted to talk but couldn't as she had breathing tubes in her. 

"All I could think was 'I don't remember', I just couldn't find a single memory," Monique said.

"My parents were standing there saying "we love you, we love you, we're here for you, you're okay' and that was confusing because of course, they love me," she said.

Monique managed to get the doctor to bring over a pen and paper to her but she couldn't write because of her injuries. After a long game of what she describes as Pictionary, they figured out she had no recollection of what happened and told her what had occurred a week ago.

Her injuries included a jaw broken in two places, deep laceration to the neck, broken left collarbone, severing 30 percent of her tricep tendon in right arm, three broken ribs, a punctured lung, left knee reconstruction, right tibia platue repair and amputation of the right foot.

 

I feel like I’m missing sometthing... Back in the dat when lifting my leg was the biggest accomplishment of my day 👊 it’s 30 minutes until training and when I feel like I’d rather stay in bed I think back to the days where I had no choice but to stay there. My body is capable of so much now- it’s my job to make the most of it! This photo was before my final amputation, this is how I woke from my coma in regards to my foot. Being confined to that bed was the 100% opposite of fun and I literally spent days watching the clock hands slowly slowly move round. Wait. Wishing. Bored...and with that in mind im off to training! Make the most of what your body can do- it might be more than you give it credit for!

A post shared by Monique Murphy (@mon.murphy) on

One of the hardest parts about learning of her injuries was not knowing what life was going to be like. Doctors told Monique she would be on pain medication for the rest of her life, that she would walk with a limp and it would take two to three years until she was living independently. 

"I didn't know what I was working towards," she said.

"To have no clue what life without a limb entails, I've never so much met a person with a prosthetic," Monique said.

But during her recovery, her friend sent her a video of Winter Paralympian Amy Purdy on American Dancing with the Stars. Purdy is a bilateral amputee, she lost both her legs below the knee after contracting bacterial meningitis.

"Immediately I was like 'well, my life is going to be alright'," Monique said.

"If she can do that without two legs, I'm going to be okay with one."

One month after her final amputation, which was on her right leg just below the knee, Monique commenced hydrotherapy. However, when the idea of hydrotherapy was first brought up by her brother, she wasn't keen on the idea.

"I shut him down pretty hard," Monique said.

Mainly because she didn't want to do 5am mornings again but she came around to the idea after discovering she could have a mermaid leg.

However, swimming wasn't new to Monique, when she was young she aimed at qualifying for the Australian Age Championships in her pet event the 100m Butterfly but after missing out on qualifying three years in a row, she decided to stop swimming. 

When she was in hydrotherapy she didn't have to wear a prosthetic, she had more mobility and she couldn't stop smiling, it was one of her favourite things to do. After six weeks in hospital and seven in rehab, Monique was discharged and decided to join Melbourne Vicentre Swim Club to build her skills. 

During her time training, her coach asked her where she wanted to go.

"I said 'as far as we can, let's see what I can do because I was intrigued, I had a new body and I didn't know what it could do," Monique said.

Exactly one year after her accident, Monique was announced as a member of the Australian Dolphins Swim Team, heading to the IPC World Championships to be held in Glasgow. 

"I was in awe," she said.

"Being on that team I was surrounded by so many amazing people, the Dolphins were such a huge part of my rehabilitation," Monique said.

Up until then, the accident had been dominating her life and everything had come back to what happened. During a team bonding session, they were playing a get to know you game where they had to write down three things.

All she could think about was things related to the incident. 

"I couldn't write those things down because everyone in the room had their own story," Monique said.

"Being on that team made me detach from what happened and focus on what I could achieve," she said.

As a child, Monique had the dream to represent Australia at the Olympics and at the Australian Championships, the then 22-year-old, raced in have favourite event the 400m freestyle in a time less than a second away from the world record.

She secured a place on the Australian Paralympic Team for the 2016 Rio Olympics. 

Monique competed in a total of four events, and on the eighth day, she swam in her pet event, the 400m Freestyle, where she won silver. 

"There is a great photo of me when I see the number two next to my name, I think that sums it all up," she said.

"I knew I was capable of it but I knew it was still going to take a pheromonal amount of effort."

Monique relocated to the Gold Coast in 2017 but it wasn't a good match for her with the coach having a primary focus on weight loss. After the World Championships were canceled due to a devastating earthquake in Mexico City, the Dolphins swam at the 2017 Para Swimming Canadian Open when it became mentally debilitating. 

When she got behind the blocks, she realised how little confidence in her herself as she had been torn down.

"After the race, my coach on the team Harley Connolly sat down with me and told me to pack my bags and move up to him," she said.

So she moved from the Gold Coast up to Brisbane to train out of Lawton with Australian teammates Brenden Hall and Lakeisha Patterson. 

After a long six months in 2018, which saw Monique miss the chance to compete at the Commonwealth Game on home soil because the events she did were not on offer, she is looking forward to getting back in the pool come the Pan Pacific Para Championships in August.

Monique will swim in the 400m freestyle where she will come up against Rio gold medalist Aurelie Rivard.

"I've been hanging out for the Pan Pacs all year and I'm just itching to get back on that team and race," she said.

With the 2020 Paralympics in Tokyo in sight, she will be looking to do some Open Water swims after doing her first in Noosa not too long ago and is hoping to do them as a fundraiser for a young boy named Max.

"Open water will be great for my fitness and it's also great to have a bit more of an incentive of helping a kid in need and bringing a bit more awareness to disabilities and para-sport in general," Monique said.