OUR TEAM OF WARRIOR MOMZ

Please meet the charter group of Kay’s Warrior Momz. It’s not a group we ever imagined becoming part of, not a club we ever wanted to join. But we are in this for our children and for everyone living with a spinal cord injury – we are in this together. And one thing I know for sure, a group of moms on a mission is an unstoppable, unrelenting force. Together we will change the world.

KAY LEDSON

Up until the 25th June 2000, Kay ran a successful Financial Services Consultancy; from the moment her phone rang advising her of Josh’s accident, her life changed forever.
On hearing the devastating news that her only child, Josh (18 1/2 years) was now a complete quadriplegic C5/T1, his medical prognosis “Josh would spend the rest of his life, if he lived confined to his bed, so catastrophic were his injuries”. Kay knew if her son was to live, she had to find another way to help him regain his independence, so began their inspirational journey. Kay, realized In those first 9 hours the doctors had “labelled” her son saying there was less than a 3% chance of any recovery; his medical team, had pigeon holed him into the world of those suffering this catastrophic injury, a world they referred to as the “Silent Epidemic.”

Kay had total faith in Josh’s medical team, as far as mending him, but in those crazy early hours she knew if Josh was to live, she would have to work out how to heal him.

Working with a committed team of alternative healers, Josh walked out of hospital 4 ½ months later. Within 2 ½ years he did not use his wheelchair.
For 11 years Kay and Josh stayed under the radar – Josh focusing on his recovery, Kay working to pay the never ending costs of therapy.

In 2011 Josh attended a facility in the USA to help him with his gait. In 2012 Kay moved to the USA to work with the facility in the area of PR, Marketing & Fundraising. The move was never for Josh, it was solely to help families dealing with this horrific, cruel injury, and to mentor and educate them to the possibilities for recovery.
Sadly activity based therapy is not usually supported by Insurance companies’ Health insurance plans, leaving the ongoing funding expenses for recovery, to families, who have to resort to endless fund raising which adds levels of stress to an already stressful situation.

In 2013 Kay established a Facebook page Warrior Momz – in an effort to spread the “good news” stories, and offer support to families living with this injury.
In 2016 Kay launched her book Warrior Mom, a book written from her heart – an account of her 16 year journey with her son. After the books completion Kay was wondering “what was next?” She had been contacted by 4 American families asking her to meet with them, this was proving to be impossible! Kay was struck with a powerful thought “YOU NEED TO WALK ACROSS AMERICA!”

The Warrior Momz Walk – 4sci recovery was formed.

DEBBIE FLYNN

Debbie Flynn became a Warrior Mom when her son, Pete, suffered a spinal cord injury at the age of 20 on July 5, 2002. Six weeks later, friends and co-workers from the San Diego electronics industry came together and hosted the first “Fore Pete’s Sake” golf tournament to help finance the cost of home modification, an adaptive van and expensive therapy equipment – none of which was covered by insurance. The QUAD Foundation was created to support the local paralyzed community and share some of Pete’s equipment – it was his idea to make this happen. Over the years the QUAD Foundation has provided many hours of ERGYS Bike FES therapy at no charge, and donated many thousands of dollars to the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation for various scientific research projects.

Fifteen years later, the QUAD Foundation is still operating with a small group of dedicated volunteers, beloved friends of the family, and we are delighted to host the first annual 2017 Warrior Momz Walk to fund therapy and services for our SCI community all across this country.

JEANNIE PICKARD

It’s one of those things that you never imagine happening to you.  I don’t think I had ever once in my life uttered the words “Spinal Cord Injury” until that Friday night on May 13th, 2011. When they told us our son had sustained a C6 spinal cord injury, we didn’t fully understand what that meant, but we would certainly find out over the next several months at The Shepherd Center in Atlanta, Georgia.

One thing we did know in our hearts after much research while in the hospital, was he would need to get into an intense activity based program in order to gain maximum recovery. So, after being discharged from the Shepherd Center, we immediately took our son to an intense activity based program in California. After six weeks in California, we knew we needed to start a program in the Atlanta area where we lived. So we had our grand opening ten months after our son’s injury, and five years later… Next Step Atlanta Paralysis Recovery Center is going strong and helping individuals find hope again! Not only can you gain recovery, but this intense activity based program will improve your quality of life in every area as you become stronger, healthier and gain independence to live life to the fullest.

My husband Paul and I more recently got back into the Real Estate business while also remaining on the board and being actively involved in fundraising for Next Step Atlanta. We have three sons, Andrew, who is graduating from Liberty University in May, James, who will be a Senior in High School next year, and Christopher, now 23 years, is an investor who old is strong, healthy, lives on his own, and has chosen to not let his injury be the center of his life. I admire him more than I can ever express. He is an overcomer!!

One of my favorite verses, which we have displayed at Next Step Atlanta, is found in John 16:33 where Jesus says “I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have (perfect) peace. In the world you have tribulation and distress and suffering, but be courageous (be confident, be undaunted, be filled with joy); I have overcome the world.”

My encouragement to other Warrior Moms is, don’t let yourself get in the downward spiral of wondering WHY this happened to your child. That was my big question for a while and I struggled for an answer, but we read in John 16:33 above, and we see in this world every single day that people suffer, problems are inevitable, bad things happen to wonderful people. You are not alone, bad things happen every single day to people in this broken world….so why would they not happen to us? The key I believe is surrendering to God and trusting that He will give you and your loved one the strength to OVERCOME, and even have a better life than before the injury. Our God is the maker of the universe, of Heaven and earth. It says in the Bible that He made it all out of nothing (Hebrew 11:3….By faith we understand that the entire universe was formed at God’s command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen) so surely He will make something beautiful out of our trials and pain. Trust Him as He is faithful to His promises!!!

We would love to see you at Next Step Atlanta….You are family and we warmly welcome you to come visit anytime!! Reach out to us on Facebook, on our website www.nextstepatlanta.org  or call me anytime 678-200-9559! Much love to you on this journey….you are an OVERCOMER!! We will keep pressing on together to make the lives of those with a spinal cord injury better and better, to raise awareness, and to believe for a cure!

KAY LATHROP

Kay Lathrop’s background in nursing, the medical device industry and the field of personal and professional coaching make her well suited to guide Amplified Agility, LLC in executing its mission. She is passionate about change and transformation and she is on fire to help people gain access to tools and resources that will help them accelerate their recovery and optimize whole body health.

For the past 20 years she has studied a variety of healing methods in various medical settings, developing the knowledge and understanding that the human body, in all of its glory, possesses the amazing ability to heal itself, if given the opportunity.

She also launched the Defy Injury podcast in 2016, which can be found in online at www.defyinjury.com as well as iTunes and Stitcher, to share the stories of amazing men and woman around the world who recover far more than anyone imagined after injury.

A former Registered Nurse (once a nurse, always a nurse!), Kay also holds the Results Certificate of Professional Coaching Skills program with over 200 hours of neuroscience-based coach-specific training. She has over 2500+ hours coaching hours. She is a certified NLP Practitioner. She holds a B.A. in Health Sciences and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration.

LIZA RIEDEL

No one expects that phone call in the middle of the night telling you that you need to come to the hospital and that your daughter was in a serious car accident.  And when a doctor looks you in the eye and says your daughter broke her neck and will never walk again, your’re expected to give up. To accept what you can’t change. It takes a rare kind of strength to reject such a diagnosis. To look the facts in the face and say “Sorry , but I believe we can do better.” At NextStep Orlando, our clients do it every day! Nine years after doctor’s predicted my daughter would never walk again, she can stand on her own and is on the verge of taking her first steps unassisted. They told us to accept what we couldn’t change. Instead, we changed what we couldn’t accept!

Since our doors opened in 2009, we have helped over 200 people who were told the same thing by their doctors. At NextStep Orlando, recovery IS AN OPTION!

RENNY ABICCA

As a mom, you’d do anything for your kid, especially when they’re hurting. After Joey’s accident, we knew that we needed to do everything we possibly could to help him recover and possibly walk again. The realization that spinal cord injury recovery was not supported nor covered by insurance, and would only be available if we fundraised to pay for it, led us to create Team Joey and raise enough funds to keep Joey actively working on recovery right away. He began activity based therapy and has made slow and steady progress to this day–nearly 8 years later! It also led me to become a Warrior Mom. Meeting other parents in the same situation has definitely made it easier, and knowing how much activity based recovery has helped Joey physically and mentally, makes me want to share what we’ve learned and let moms know that it is OK to ask for help.