News
Boston, Salem residents become semifinalists in national contest for wheelchair accessible van
MASSACHUSETTS – Two disabled Massachusetts residents are one step closer to obtaining a wheelchair accessible van that would ease obstacles in transportation for them and their caretakers. Chrissy Correia of Boston and Dominick Pacheco of Salem became semi-finalists this week in a National Mobility Awareness Month competition that will award a customized wheelchair accessible van to at least three winners. Entrants, called “Local Heroes,” were directed to either submit a story and picture or a video that describes the disabled person’s need for such a van. Voters were invited to vote once a day for who they felt was most deserving of the prize. Correia and Pacheco garnered enough votes to place in the top 5 percent of the competition that had around 1,300 entrants from across the United States. Read More!
Sports
Wheelchair Athletes Compete In Softball Tournament
MISSOURI – Robert Baker has loved the game of softball since he was young. “I love the game. It’s a lot of fun,” says Baker. But nearly 40 years ago, everything changed when he became paralyzed from the waist down and learned he must live the rest of his life in a wheelchair. Baker rolled along with other wheelchair athletes to compete in the Kansas Accessible Sports Wheelchair Softball Tournament at Gage Park in Topeka. Half of each team are wheelchair ball players and the other half are able bodied athletes playing in wheelchairs. So, the only differences are their skill levels. “It’s just a good time to get out and get some exercise and just have some fun with some old friends,” says wheelchair athlete, Josh Bailey. “We all have a good time and we play in tournaments. We play to win,” says Baker. Not only do they play to win, they play to
Columns
CORK’S JEAN HOPES TO BE FIRST WHEELCHAIR USER AT ROSE FESTIVAL
IRELAND – A Cork Woman is hoping to become the first wheelchair user to take part in the Rose of Tralee contest.Jean Daly from Carrigaline has been selected as the Antrim Rose and goes forward to the regional finals for selection for the Tralee stage of the competition in Portlaoise next month.The 26-year-old researcher has been wheelchair bound since she was paralysed in a fall from a horse nine years ago. She works with the Cedar Foundation in Belfast, which works with children and adults with disabilities throughout Northern Ireland. Jean has been living in Antrim for the past four years and is looking forward to representing the county in the regional finals for Tralee. She said: “I am still in shock after being selected as the Antrim Rose. It was a very intense moment and everyone was cheering. I have always been a fan of the Rose of Tralee — my mother is from
Research
If You Were Paralyzed: Two Champions You’d Want on Your Side
CALIFORNIA – Imagine being paralyzed: whatever position you are in right now, you must stay there– until someone comes to move you. As an American, the chances of you becoming paralyzed are roughly one in fifty. With a U.S. population of 315 million, an estimated 5.6 million children and adults suffer paralysis. That’s 1.7 percent of America’s population, members of your family and mine. One is my cousin, R–, who recently incurred a nerve condition called Guillain-Barré syndrome . He was paralyzed in hands and legs, but fortunately had the good sense to get to a physician immediately. GB can be fatal, if the chest cannot rise so the lungs inhale; the paralysis it brings can also be permanent, but generally it is not. GB affects the outer nervous system (peripheral) not the brain and spine. My cousin, if all goes well, should recover fully in one to six months. My son Roman Reed became
Issues
The sex workers giving disabled people a chance to live out their dreams
U.K. – A forthcoming Channel 4 documentary, Can Have Sex Will Have Sex, features the sex lives of four disabled people, one of whom loses his virginity to an escort who has been hired by his mother.The programme has been labelled “controversial”, but many mothers call the sex and disability helpline, which I run, worried that their disabled son is physically unable to masturbate and desperately needs an outlet. Hiring a sex worker is one option.They can find responsible sex workers on the TLC-Trust website which was created in 2000 by myself and a disabled man, James Palmer, who was sad about being a virgin in his mid 40s. The hundred or so sex workers who have profiles on the site say they each see about eight disabled clients a month. One told me she recently saw a 38-year-old whose father had called after both parents had sought her out. It was their son’s birthday
Books
Former Reporter With Lou Gehrig’s Disease Hopes Her Book Will Inspire
FLORIDA -Booksellers around the world are make room for a book that tells the story of a Florida woman battling Lou Gehrig’s disease. The book, “Until I Say Goodbye,” by former Palm Beach Post reporter Susan Spencer-Wendel, 46, hits bookshelves Tuesday. The book is an account of her diagnosis and the year that followed, in which she took trips she long had hoped to take and prepared to say goodbye to her loved ones. Harper Collins inked a $2.3 million deal for the book, and Universal Pictures followed with a seven-figure deal of its own for the film rights. Spencer-Wendel says she hopes her book will inspire readers to make a conscious effort to live joyously. Read More!
VIPs
Don Schoendorfer, founder of Free Wheelchair Mission
The sight of a crippled Moroccan woman crawling across a dirt road planted a seed that germinated in 1999 when Don Schoendorfer, founder of Free Wheelchair Mission, invested his education and professional expertise as a PhD Mechanical Engineer to create a simple, rugged, and inexpensive wheelchair that could be donated to the thousands of those in need. There are over 100,000,000 disabled adults and children for whom the dream of a wheelchair is worlds beyond their expectations. They live without this basic form of mobility by crawling through life or waiting for a loved one to carry them. Schoendorger’s goal is to donate 20 million chairs by 2010. He is well on his way. The chairs cost about $44. Donations needed!