I was born with CP (Cerebral Palsy). I had a good mother that would work with me, trying to keep me on my feet everyday, she would give me no slack. Then I started at: the School for the Handicapped. We thought they would know more than we did, but they didn’t. They took my walker away from me and put me in a wheelchair for several mouths.
Mother was upset; she fought with them, and said to them “How can you do this? Why can’t you start were he is now?”
They said “We do it for Therapy!” That’s all they would say, no explanation because they thought they knew best. They did not care what we thought or wanted.
In the year of 1962, I graduated from Kelso High School, and then I went out on my own. People would say to my mother “how could you do such a thing like this?” They could not believe she would let me live on my own. She would say to them, “He is old enough, he can do what he wants.”
In year of 1964 I move to Seattle, went to “CP workshop” (Today it is known as Provail) I was there for about three years.
Now I was walking with a cane, but in 1984 I fell down and broke my arm. I could not walk anymore and had to use a wheelchair until my arm healed. I went into a deep depression; I had go in a wheelchair, which I did not like at all! A guy from my church ask me if I would like go to a conference, I say “no”, but he said “Let go of your pride and let me help you!” That started whole new life for me.
In year of 2002 I met guy name Monty Reed with They Shall Walk.org who was developing the LIFESUIT Robotic Exoskeleton that will allow paralyzed people to walk again. In 2005 The Lord told me to work with him. I thought He was crazy! But the Lord knows what He doing. Now I have been working as PR man doing e-mail, and other work as needed.
I am in the Test Pilot program and because of the They Shall Walk Exercise Partners Program I have been getting help from volunteers every week so I can do my exercises. In the last four months I have improved so much I was just prescribed a walker for the first time since 1984. That means after two and a half decades of being trapped in a wheelchair I will be able to walk again soon.
You can help me and millions of other paralyzed people walk again: become a volunteer and make a donation to support www.TheyShallWalk.org
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Mail a donation to They Shall Walk, 6201 15th Ave NW #542, Seattle, WA 98107 USA
Teds Blog http://www.theyshallwalk.org/blog.asp
