NI man’s stirring love story as he searches for paralysis cure
IT’S a love story with a difference.
The tale is an incredible example of strength, loyalty and commitment. And now it has reached nearly a million people after being told at a conference in Vancouver.
Entitled ‘A love letter to realism in a time of grief ’, it charts the battle between accepting tragedy and building up hope for the change you want to achieve. And despite what they have been through, their determination remains unwavering.
Mark Pollock (42), from Holywood, Co Down, lost his sight at the age of 22 in 1998 and went on to become the first blind person to race to the South Pole.
Tragically, in 2010, just three weeks before his wedding, his life was thrown into turmoil again as a fall from a second-storey window paralysed him from the waist down.
He fought back once again by starting the Mark Pollock Trust and has dedicated his time to searching for a cure for paralysis and to his own mission of walking again. But he hasn’t done it alone.
It was his partner Simone George (43), a human rights lawyer, who from the very early stages of Mark’s injuries set the ball rolling by starting research into paralysis.
Mark’s battle between acceptance, realism and hope continues to be at theforefrontofhismind.Hetoldthe Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED) Talk audience: “I think we have come to understand that the optimists rely on hope alone and they risk being disappointed and demoralised. The realists, on the other hand, they accept the brutal facts and they keep hope alive as well.
“The realists have managed to resolve the tension between acceptance and hope by running them in parallel.Andthat’swhatSimoneand I have been trying to do over the last number of years.”
Mark has told his inspiring story many times — but he says what makes this talk so powerful is Simone’s input.
He told the Belfast Telegraph: “The difference now is that my story is a joint story with Simone and it’s very much a partnership. She brings all ofherwealthandtalentsandexperiences as a human rights lawyer and within our relationship to pursuing her research into a cure.
“People find my view of the world of interest and others find Simone’s, significantly more poetic view of the world, more engaging.”
He added: “I only represent a part of the population, the patient if you like; Simone represents the partner, the friend, the family member, the son, the daughter, everyone else, all the supporters outside who aren’t injured. I think the balance gives both perspectives.”
Simone speaks powerfully in the talk and in a particularly moving moment she describes the world of science as a place of “love”. She said: “And it truly has been a love story, an expansive, abundant, deeply satisfying kind of love for our fellow humans and everyone in this act of creation. Science is love. Everyone we’ve met in this field just wants to get their work from the bench and into people’s lives.”
Mark admitted it’s very emotional hearing Simone speak about their experiences. He said: “She has found the compassion within science, which is why she says science is love.”
Visit the Mark Pollock Trust for more on how the couple are continuing to make the seemingly impossible possible.