I dare you to pay attention. Pay attention to everyone. Including kids like me.
I know first-hand what’s possible when we dare to dream big for ourselves and others. When I grow up, I want to help other people with disabilities by building prosthetics that connect to the brain. For now, I spend my days doing everyday kid things. When I’m not coding my video game, “Shark Dodger,” I enjoy exploring fictional worlds in my favourite books and playing sledge hockey for my hometown team, the Woolwich Thrashers.
The best part of being 11-years-old? Going on adventures every day with my best friend. We met one fateful day at Holland Bloorview after we had the same surgery just a week apart.
As a baby, I walked on my toes and had the world’s tightest hamstrings. It wasn’t long before I was diagnosed with cerebral palsy. At six-years-old, I became one of the first children in Ontario to get selective dorsal rhizotomy. This one-of-a-kind joint program between Holland Bloorview and SickKids changed my life forever—and the three months I spent post-surgery at Holland Bloorview were the best of my life.
I stayed at the hospital with my mom, Sarah. I did physiotherapy and occupational therapy every day, where I built strength and stability in my legs. I saw progress fast, hitting a heel strike while walking on the treadmill and challenging my clinicians to plank competitions.
The surgery and rehab opened up possibilities for me to play and grow. Five years later, I swim, ride my bike and play basketball with far less discomfort in my legs. And this year I ran for the track and field team with encouragement from some of my biggest cheerleaders: my friends.
But it hasn’t always been a smooth journey. We live two hours away from Toronto. Getting care in a small community as a kid with a disability can feel like playing a game of broken telephone. One doctor will make a recommendation while the next will say the exact opposite. And there aren’t many affordable physiotherapists in our town—let alone many who are trained to work with kids with disabilities.
Since becoming an honorary chair for Together We Dare, I’ve learned that I’m far from the only kid facing these obstacles. There are 850,000 children and youth with disabilities in Canada—and yet there are only 145 developmental pediatricians in the country, with 23% retiring in the next 5 years.
The numbers just aren’t adding up. I asked Dr. Golda Milo-Manson, Vice President of Medicine and Academic Affairs at Holland Bloorview, about the shortage and what Holland Bloorview is doing to help train more developmental pediatricians.
“Children with disabilities deserve access to specialized care, no matter where they live,” Dr. Milo-Manson says. “We’re building capacity and challenging the health care system by training the next generation of developmental pediatricians to fill this critical gap.”
That’s why it’s important now more than ever for me to use my voice. To speak up for kids with disabilities like me. I want a world where we can get the care we need, when we need it, without having to worry about what the future holds. I believe it’s possible. But I can’t do it alone.
I’m daring to pay attention. And now it’s your turn, too.