As Warrior Mom Kay Ledson finishes the first 1 million steps in her heroic Warrior Momz Walk across America, I am energized, and humbled, by your incredible out-pouring of support. Very soon Kay will enter the third state, New Mexico, and she is truly making a difference for people living with a spinal cord injury.
Our first therapy scholarship recipient in Carlsbad, CA., a Ph.D. candidate at UCSD, is making incredible progress as a result of ten therapy sessions at VIP Neuro in San Diego funded by Warrior Momz Walk. Amazing people helping amazing people. And our second scholarship recipient, yet to be identified, will have the opportunity to engage in team sports and pool therapy at Ability360 in Phoenix, AZ. I encourage everyone to check this place out – www.ability360.org. I wish we had a facility like this in every city in the country; it is by far the best I’ve ever seen.
This is what drives me, motivates me – providing therapy scholarships to our spinal cord injured children and family members, when insurance companies drop the ball. These scholarships, funding by your generous gifts, keep the therapy going while we wait for Congress to get it right. And when we walk and roll into Washington in March of 2018 and meet with lawmakers, we will tell a compelling story about life-changing physical therapy in the journey of recovery and victory over spinal cord injury.
This week I had the great honor and privilege of meeting and speaking with five different families with new injuries: I met an LA attorney whose 79 year old mother became quadriplegic from a fall, the mom and sisters of a newly licensed 16 year old who sustained a thoracic injury in an auto accident, a retired legend from the San Diego electronics industry who became a paraplegic in the instant of a car crash. I spoke at length with a man in San Diego whose injury worsened in the hospital resulting in an extended stay – 18 months post injury this brave man still doesn’t even have a wheelchair, but he’s finally home, and ready to start living again. And I spoke with family members of a young man in Carlsbad with a cervical injury being cared for by his girlfriend and grandmother, all trying to find their way through this horrific injury.
How I remember those early days when Pete became quadriplegic. The uncertainty and fear, and heartbreak; this injury breaks a family’s heart. The very best next step after someone sustains a spinal cord injury is intensive, activity-based, repetitive motion physical therapy. Physical therapy infuses a body with positive action in a supportive environment of encouragement and fellowship. It increases circulation, improves muscle mass and bone density – the endorphins alone make it valuable! Therapy promises hope for recovery, hope for reconnection and regeneration of neural pathways, and we believe every man, woman and child living with a spinal cord injury deserves their own chance of recovery.
Please join us and support Warrior Momz Walk with your Facebook likes and shares, your financial gifts at www.quadfoundation.org, and your prayers for Kay’s safety, good health and success! Please help us spread the word, please help us make a difference.
Make your mother proud…
Debbie
QUAD Foundation, Inc.
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