From a wheelchair to running shoes
Tignish woman completes first fivekilometre race three years after neardeath experience
Three years ago, Christi-Joe Snyders-Couchman was fighting for her life in a hospital bed.
Before that, she spent most of her young adult years in a wheelchair.
On Sunday, Snyders-Couchman celebrated crossing the finish line of her first five-kilometre race during the 2018 P.E.I. Marathon.
It was the culmination of hard work and perseverance after overcoming a near-death experience from an episode of respiratory distress and heart failure three years ago.
“I accomplished a lot that I didn’t know I could accomplish so I’m really excited and happy for myself,” said the 28-year-old Tignish resident.
Snyders-Couchman has spent much of her life in and out of the hospital after being born with Di George syndrome, which is caused by the deletion of a small segment of a chromosome, and her spine is also crooked in three places due to scoliosis.
Because of her diagnosis, Snyders-Couchman required a trach tube to help her breathe from ages 14-16. The tube made her immobile and caused her to gain weight while her muscles began to weaken, a combination which left her in a wheelchair for about seven years.
In 2011, she worked up the strength to stop using the wheelchair.
“I grew stronger and was able to get myself out,” said Snyders Couchman, who then grew a love for running by joining the Special Olympics.
Three years ago, she came first in the 100-metre and 200-metre races during a meet in Moncton.
However, shortly after her victories Snyders-Couchman underwent a hysterectomy.
After the surgery, something didn’t feel right.
“I just started screaming… ‘My chest is sore, my chest is sore’,” recalled Snyders-Couchman.
Fluid had surrounded her heart and lungs and she went into respiratory distress and heart failure.
“They didn’t think she would pull through for a long time,” said Snyders-Couchman’s mother Josephine Clements.
It wasn’t her daughter’s first brush with death. Due to her syndrome, Snyders-Couchman does not have a strong immune system to fight infection.
“She has been very close to death quite a few times but this time I wasn’t sure she was going to come through,” said Clements.
Snyders-Couchman’s surgery turned into an eight-week stay at the hospital.
She survived.
When she got out of the hospital, she used an oxygen tank for a while but soon went back to work at the Maple House Bakery Café.
While things were mostly back to its usual routine, Snyders Couchman was told she was not allowed to run for at least three years.
With the three years now up, Snyders-Couchman started training for the five-kilometre run with her disability support worker Jacquie Lidstone.
“I kept my courage up and I kept practising until I got the courage to run this,” said Snyders-Couchman.
In Saturday’s five-kilometre race, Snyders-Couchman finished with a time of 55 minutes.
Looking forward, she said her goal is to keep running longer distances in shorter times.
“After I do a 10 (kilometre), go a litter bit higher,” she said. “I don’t know how high yet, but I’ll think about it on the way.”