The paralysis only affected my legs. “You were lucky.” That's what everyone explained to me. I couldn't see that happiness... It was in 2007. I lived in Koo near Konin. I worked there too. At local meat plants. My diploma in food technology came in handy in that job. I didn't make any plans for the future. I was 25 years old and had my whole life ahead of me.
I rebelled against fate. I didn't believe that I wouldn't be able to walk again. I did not believe neither the doctors nor the boys in wheelchairs from the PAY IT FORWARD Foundation. They came to me 2 weeks after the accident. They wanted to help me to accept that I will not go further in life on my own two feet. But I can drive into it and move around freely. In a wheelchair. If I was willing to learn. They wanted to show how to do it. I kicked them off. Not once, many times. Because I still hoped that my condition was temporary.
However, I wasn't a fool. Finally, I realized that rehabilitation, exercises, massages, etc. are necessary because they give me the strength I need. But they will never magically make my paralyzed legs work again. When the hope of walking was gone, I decided to prove to myself, to other people, and to the world that I can be independent.
On my own I learned how to drive and live in a wheelchair. I was trying to figure out how to balance on wheels, how to drive up curbs, how to drive over uneven paving slabs and gravel paths in the park, or how to go up and down the stairs. How to do all of this and not to fall out of the wheelchair. And if this happens, what should I do to avoid lying on the street, asking anyone for help, and how to get back into the wheelchair by myself?
It took 4 years to persuade me. To do something more than exercise and stay at home. Several of us gathered. Guys like me, with spinal cord injuries. We wanted to play wheelchair basketball. We called ourselves "The Mustangs." In January 2012, we had our first practice. Still without special, purposely built, sport wheelchairs. And now? We are 3-time (in a row) Polish Champions. We also won 2 Cups and 1 Polish Super Cup.
I also realized that I could train others. Now I teach people with disabilities how to live and roll in a wheelchair. Also those in Osada Janaszkowo during active rehabilitation sessions and other physical practices and those during a stay in the training apartments. I also help recruit new residents and Foundation’s project participants. Only every fourth person with a spinal cord injury, who „comes” to the PAY IT FORWARD Foundation, knows how to do something by themselves, independently. There are people who are brought on stretchers. Physically and emotionally broken. Because their lives "collapsed". And after a few weeks, these people leave on their own, in attuned wheelchairs and with plans for a new stage in their lives. I'm also making plans. We’re getting married next year. My beloved one, 4 children and Lili the dog are already here.
My name is PRZEMYSLAW.
I am an independent living instructor.
I am a paraplegic.
I am an INDEPENDENT PERSON.
