A week after my 14th birthday in 2006, I broke my neck in a tumbling accident. I was immediately paralyzed from the neck down from a spinal cord injury (SCI). I had no idea what that meant. I thought I would go to the hospital and they could "fix" me. I learned there is no cure for SCI and that paralysis is so much more than just the inability to walk. It had robbed me of my independence, health and quality of life and gave me debilitating secondary complications. My body was deteriorating right before my eyes.

After I finished acute rehab in Pittsburgh, I realized my body needed more than my city could offer. I found an activity based therapy center in Boston. The difference between this therapy and therapy I received at home was night and day. With activity based therapy, I was out of my wheelchair the entire session and trainers were moving my body how it moved before my injury to restore the connection in my spinal cord. After a week visit, I knew this is what my body needed. So I moved to Boston as a quadriplegic by myself to get the care my body needed and attend college.

While there, I regained the ability to stand again, crawl, pedal a spin bike and move my foot. These physical gains were wonderful but the unexpected byproducts of activity based therapy gave me the ability to lead a healthy and productive life. I had decreased all of my secondary complications that made it so difficult for me to just even exist and had improved my quality of life immensely. I had made organic relationships with peers who also had SCIs that helped me cope with the trauma and grief and showed me how to live again in my new body. It was life changing. While in Boston, my cousin sustained a SCI too. I wanted him and others to have the same opportunities that I was given through activity based therapy, but there was no similar care in our hometown.

I moved home to Pittsburgh to open an activity based therapy center, NextStep Pittsburgh. While meeting fellow Pittsburghers living with paralysis, I learned that a majority of them are leaving Pittsburgh to obtain a continuum of care as well. There are more than 40 activity based therapy centers across the country, yet none within a four hour radius of Pittsburgh. In a town known as “The City of Champions”, this is unacceptable.

Since moving home, my body has drastically declined and I lost some of the function I had regained. Secondary complications have invaded my life. As I age with this SCI at 31 years old, I’m reminded even more so how critical having an activity based therapy center is for managing my SCI body if I want to prevent these serious complications.

Supporting NextStep Pittsburgh is so important not only to me and others living with paralysis and their caregivers, but to individuals that are not yet even injured. We are building NextStep Pittsburgh not just for current Pittsburghers in need, but to enhance life for our future neighbors in need.

Paralysis is something that can happen to anybody at any time. It does not discriminate against age, race, socioeconomic status, gender or previous disability. Everybody deserve a chance to live a healthy and fulfilling life and a chance at recovery. NextStep Pittsburgh is striving to provide that chance!