Michael Willier, pictured above

I was born in Picture Butte, near Lethbridge, Alberta. I grew up with my grandparents and three cousins, and spent every summer hunting and fishing and going to powwows on weekends.  I’ve lived in many places in western Canada and the US and have been in Edmonton, on and off for over 20 years.

On July 21, 2007, I was sitting on the branch of a tree – 30 to 40 feet up - in my backyard. The branch broke, and my feet got caught up so I came down head first. I broke my neck and both arms and had internal bruising, and damaged my heart.  I was a skydiver, and worked in dangerous professions and here I fell out of a tree that I’d been climbing for years, and now was paralyzed from my chest down with a C5 complete injury.  When I woke up I could only use my eyes.

My arms slowly came back…they told me I wouldn’t get my triceps back, but I did.  I’m a stubborn person and began working out.  The first year, I stayed in my manual chair, and also got some trunk and stomach muscles back.  I didn’t want to use a power chair but had to as my broken wrist was too painful.  I went back for surgery on it and they took some bone from my hip.

You’ve got to have a plan to be successful.

Amy Latimer, Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in the School of Kinesiology and Health Studies at Queens University, Kingston, and Executive Director of the Revved Up Exercise Program, knows that’s true...especially when it comes to leading a healthy, active life.

While doing her dissertation study 10 years ago, she found that all people, mobility impaired or not, are more likely to live an active lifestyle if they create a plan that covers what they will do, when they’ll do it, and the resources they need.

“The extra challenge for people with mobility issues,” explains Amy, “is that, in a small city like Kingston, existing facilities are either not physically accessible, or the staff don’t have the knowledge and expertise to support them in a typical gym setting.”

Enter the “Revved Up” Exercise Program where people with mobility impairments are supported to make and stick to a plan, and provided with adapted equipment for them to use.  They discover that the rewards go beyond physical fitness, supporting numerous studies that show that the psychological benefits of physical activity for people with a spinal cord injury include pain management, lower levels of depression, less stress, and a better overall quality of life.

Cher Smith (pictured left) with a group of OTs and OTAs teaching the "brick trick" for wheelies during a wheelchair skills training workshop

Forwards, backwards, curves…steps!

Curbs, uneven roads, gravel, mud and grass…negotiating life from a wheelchair is not easy.  But with a few new skills, can come unexpected rewards.

“It seems incredible that you would just give someone a wheelchair and expect them to be able to use it,” says Cher Smith, Occupational Therapist at the Nova Scotia Rehabilitation Centre, in Halifax.  “There is no other piece of $6000 medical equipment that we would just give to someone without training them on how to use it first.”

Enter the Wheelchair Skills Program, established by Dr. Lee Kirby, Professor in Dalhousie Medical School's Division of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, and a physician at the Nova Scotia Rehabilitation Hospital of Capital Health.  When Cher joined as a team member, - after experience at the Children’s Centre in Halifax, then with people with amputations and finally the speciality seating and mobility clinic – her work became her passion.

Originally published in Forbes Magazine, November 30, 2011

http://www.forbes.com/sites/tanyamohn/2011/11/30/out-of-the-wheelchair-into-the-deep-blue-sea/

Tanya Mohn, Contributor

Daryl Rock and Hubert Chretien

Daryl Rock has scuba dived in the lakes and rivers of Canada, in and around the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, as well as in Hawaii, the Bahamas, Bonaire, Fiji and Tahiti. That would be quite an accomplishment for anyone, but Rock is paralyzed and uses a wheelchair.

He is also the founder of the Freedom at Depth Foundation, an organization that teaches scuba diving to disabled people, and trains instructors to teach other disabled people  how to dive.

When not diving, Rock is a management consultant for Knowledge Mobilization Works, based in Ottawa, Canada, and chairman of the Rick Hansen Global Accessibility Map, a new online rating tool to help people with disabilities evaluate the accessibility of restaurants, hotels and other sites.

Scuba diving is an exhilarating experience for everyone. For people with disabilities, it has an added benefit — the sense of freedom and independence that you feel underwater. – Daryl Rock

Rock answered some questions in advance of the United Nations International Day that honors people with disabilities, which this year falls on Saturday, December 3.

Former BC Premier Mike Harcourt (left) greets Rick Hansen after his injury.

On November 30, 2002, former British Columbia premier Mike Harcourt slipped off the deck of his Pender Island cottage and tumbled down a six-metre cliff to the rocks and ocean below.

The impact of the fall left Mike with a serious spinal cord injury similar to the one that permanently paralyzed Rick Hansen in 1973. However, thanks to increased attention and investment in SCI research and care since then, Mike experienced a very different outcome. The combination of a highly trained trauma response team, expert spinal cord surgeons, active rehabilitation, and of course, Mike’s tenacity and determination resulted in his walking again; he didn’t have to accept permanent paralysis.