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BOSTON, MA – On April 13-15, 2004, a young man named Jack Shadduck bicycled 26.2 miles – completing the same distance as the thousands of
runners of the Boston Marathon. Why is it a miracle? Because Jack is paralyzed
from the neck down. The marathon raised more than $35,000 to further the
First Five Project.
Until recently,
the medical community would have said that people with spinal cord injuries
could never regain any movement or feeling in their paralyzed bodies. Jack
Shadduck, along with others, are proving otherwise.
In May 2002,
Jack, then 13, was struck with
Transverse Myelitis, a rare inflammation of the spinal column, that has left the
Massachusetts native a quadriplegic – paralyzed from the neck down and unable even to
breathe without the support of a ventilator. People with extreme paralysis like
Jack suffer from many other health problems, ranging from osteoporosis to
infections, resulting in repeated hospitalizations.
In September
2003, Jack began working to improve his health overall and regain some mobility
through a pilot project called The First Five, sponsored by The
Massachusetts Hospital School and the Northeast Spinal Cord Initiative (NESCI), a
Travis Roy Foundation supported initiative. He and
three other spinal cord injured patients spent 3 evenings a week in an intensive,
focused exercise program with coaching and supervision from an athletic trainer
and a specialty nurse. The program included riding a specially adapted exercise
bike that uses electrodes placed on the rider’s legs and buttocks to contract
their muscles, and enable them to work out.
After six months in this innovative program, Jack
was able to breathe
without a ventilator for as long as 5 days in a row, lift his left arm, and
move several of his fingers and toes. For Jack, maybe the most important accomplishment
was
that he was able to move both his arms back and forth enough to soon be able
to use a joystick to steer his wheelchair, giving him much more control than
using his mouth than with a sip-and-puff device.
Jack was
determined to “bicycle” the Boston Marathon to raise funds so more young people
like him can participate in the program that helped him achieve so much.
Whether a nickel a mile from one of his younger brother’s elementary school
classmates or $1000 a mile from a corporation that respects the kind of
determination Jack’s showing, every penny earned from Jack's marathon will go directly towards growing The
First Five project.
The goal is to raise $500,000 to grow the program from four participants to 40.
Funds are needed to purchase equipment, hire full-time staff, and lease space.
Contributions may be mailed to: Travis Roy Foundation/NESCI, c/o Palmer & Dodge
LLP, 111 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02199-7613. Checks in support of
NESCI & Jack Shadduck's marathon should be written to "Travis Roy Foundation
f/b/o NESCI".
The First Five: A pilot project initiated by
the Northeast Spinal Cord Initiative, sponsored by the Massachusetts Hospital
School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and partially funded by The
Travis Roy Foundation and a grant from the Christopher Reeve Paralysis
Foundation. The program is run by Susan Sheehy, MSN, RN, FAAN,.a nurse
researcher at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and a doctoral student at the
Boston College William F. Connell School of Nursing. The goal of the program is
to assess the results of the high-intensity, focused exercise program on health,
functional improvement and complication reduction for adolescents and adults
with spinal cord injuries. The six key measures are improvement in muscle mass,
bone density, motor, sensory , cardiovascular function, and reduction of
complications.
Northeast Spinal Cord Initiative (NESCI):
The ultimate goal of NESCI is to establish a spinal cord injury center that is
state of the art, with cutting edge programs specific to the ages of the
patients, that includes family immersion into care of their loved one,
opportunities for research participation, and extension into the community with
lifetime programs for spinal cord injured people.
The Travis Roy Foundation: The Travis
Roy Foundation was established to help spinal cord injury survivors and to fund
research into a cure. Inspired by Travis' own story, the lifeblood of the Travis
Roy Foundation has been the generosity of individuals, corporations and
foundations across North America. This generosity has made an immediate impact
on the lives of many individuals. Since 1997 the Foundation has distributed more
than $1,000,000 in individual grants and to research projects and rehabilitation
institutions across North America. The Foundation is also actively involved in
efforts to build a state of the art spinal cord center in Northeast through
its Northeast Spinal Cord Initiative (NESCI).
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