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Ruth Bonneville \/ Free Press<\/p>\n
Will Castor, shown with his parents Doug and Cheryl Castor, has a traumatic brain injury caused by a car crash. Cheryl Castor is fighting to restore a critical rehabilitation service for Manitobans that was of great benefit to her son.<\/p>\n
But on June 5, financial constraints forced First Steps to close, leaving families without the specialized therapy they had come to rely on.<\/p>\n
Now, Will\u2019s mother, Cheryl Castor, is leading an effort to get those services back.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a story of hope,\u201d Cheryl said. \u201cWe could have given up and thrown the towel in when we got that email (saying it had closed). But nope, I was not going to let that happen. It\u2019s too important; you see what it means to people.\u201d<\/p>\n
First Steps is a specialized non-profit organization that provides intensive, activity-based therapy for people who have spinal cord injuries and neurological impairments, such as multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy and stroke.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen (Will) first went there, he wasn\u2019t sitting up very well on his own,\u201d Cheryl said. \u201cHe\u2019s doing that now, like no problem. He couldn\u2019t get in and out of bed on his own. He does that now. They do exercises that are creating neural pathways, neuroplasticity, where the brain is going to remember those actions.\u201d<\/p>\n
With First Steps closed in Winnipeg, Manitoba no longer has a long-term rehabilitation centre that offers this type of specialized activity-based therapy.<\/p>\n
Raynald Dupuis, a volunteer board member with First Steps, said the closure was not due to the lack of need, but rather the financial challenges of operating the Winnipeg location.<\/p>\n
Dupuis said it had high overhead costs after another organization sharing its rented space moved out and First Steps was unable to find another tenant to help offset expenses. The location had staffing challenges and was being managed remotely from Regina, which created additional pressures.<\/p>\n
First Steps locations remain open in Regina and Sherbrooke, Que., and Dupuis said the Regina centre supports the effort to bring the program back to Winnipeg.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a client who was told, \u2018Why are you wasting your time at First Steps? You\u2019re wasting your time and money; you\u2019ll never walk again,\u2019\u201d Dupuis said. \u201cAnd guess what? He\u2019s starting to walk again with a walker. So that\u2019s impressive; that\u2019s incredible. Part of it is the therapy, the physical part; part of it is the social-emotional support.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although Will continues to receive physiotherapy and his family helps with other therapeutic exercises at home, Cheryl said nothing has replaced what First Steps offered.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a community where we all support one another, and we all understand,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just about the therapy; it\u2019s about the whole social thing for people with disabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said having a brain injury can be very isolating and leaving the house to attend First Steps gave Will, and others, a sense of community they now miss.<\/p>\n
Cheryl has launched a GoFundMe campaign to raise $100,000 toward opening a new rehabilitation facility. The money would help purchase specialized rehabilitation equipment, secure a facility and create a space where former First Steps clients could continue their recovery.<\/p>\n
As of Friday, the campaign had raised just under $5,000.<\/p>\n
Cheryl, Dupuis and five others have formed a volunteer board to work toward reopening the centre.<\/p>\n
\n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n
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The group is organizing additional events, including a used-purse sale and a fitness fundraiser at 55 Fitness, to help raise money for the project.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to do all those renovations, so not cheap. We are all volunteers. None of us are getting anything out of this other than getting the joy of helping these people,\u201d Cheryl said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel very urgent about it because I don\u2019t want these guys to be without their therapy very long.\u201d<\/p>\n
Find the fundraising group\u2019s GoFundMe at gofundme.com\/f\/new-manitoba-rehabilitation-centre<\/p>\n
zoe.pierce@freepress.mb.ca<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four years ago, a car crash permanently changed Will Castor\u2019s life. The 28-year-old suffered a traumatic brain injury…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":798710,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":["post-798709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=798709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/798710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=798709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=798709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=798709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}