Student fights for funds to help wounded vet
Determined to raise $150,000 for bionic tool
Wounded war veteran Capt. Trevor Greene may walk again, thanks to the enormous efforts of a Nanaimo Grade 12 student.
Rebecca Lumley, a student at Wellington secondary school, is using social media to campaign for an Aviva Community Fund award to purchase an exoskeleton for Greene.
The exoskeleton is a cuttingedge bionic device consisting of braces, a motor and computer that straps to the body and lifts, balances and moves it in a walking motion.
The technology is particularly useful to help paralyzed patients with rehabilitation because it puts the body in motion, builds muscle and improves blood flow.
Greene, a Canadian soldier and journalist, was injured in a Taliban axe attack in Afghanistan in 2006 after removing his helmet to show respect to village elders.
Doctors told his wife Debbie that he wouldn’t live; then that he would never come out of a coma; and then that he would be a vegetable and should be consigned to a care home.
His extraordinary tale of defying those predictions and fighting first for his life and now to learn to walk again is chronicled in his book, March Forth.
Lumley, whose mother was a military nurse, remembers meeting Greene’s wife and infant daughter when both families lived at the Jericho base in Vancouver.
The story of the attack and his struggle to recover affected Lumley profoundly. She decided that when she grew up, she would become a medical doctor in the armed forces.
Six years after the attack, Greene and Lumley were both living in Nanaimo.
Lumley, who is vice-president of her student council, said Greene inspired students at her school when he came to speak on Nov. 11.
“We were talking about wanting to create change and have a positive impact. Our teacher, John Mandziuk,
We were wanting to create change, we didn’t have to wait REBECCA LUMLEY
pointed out that we didn’t have to wait.”
Mandziuk’s wife, an occupational therapist, had told him about the unique new technology, something she was convinced could help Greene.
Lumley and Mandziuk, who teaches marketing and is adviser to the student council, contacted Berkeley Bionics, which agreed to provide an exoskeleton, the first in Canada, if $150,000 could be raised.
The exoskeleton would be housed at CBI health centre in Nanaimo, and available for use by other patients as well.
“Trevor’s story is one that receives a lot of attention. If we could get this for Trevor and raise awareness in the community, it could open doors for so many others,” Lumley said.
Her project has made it through the first round of voting; now she’s hoping they make it to the semifinals.
Projects are voted on by members of the public at www.avivacommunityfund. org; anyone registered on the site can vote daily until the closing of this round of the competition on Dec. 12.
The annual Aviva competition distributes $1 million in prizes annually for community-enriching projects.