Physical Health Poland Project #47356

Rehabilitation center for 60 disabled in Poland

by Fundacja im. Doktora Piotra Janaszka PODAJ DALEJ/ Doctor Piotr Janaszek PAY IT FORWARD Foundation

Rehabilitation center for 60 disabled in Poland

Project Report | Oct 1, 2024
THE GENE OF INDEPENDENCE - Peter

By Filip Sobieszek | Project Leader

PAY IT FORWARD - Peter

It was May. I just passed my high school exams. Me and my friends had a couple of drinks. Then we decided to ride our motorcycles to the disco. We were racing. I felt immortal. I didn't make it to the party. I fell off the road into a ditch.

Cables, motors, mechanisms. That was my whole world. As a child, in my family home in small Prazki near ódz,I loved to create models of cars and ships. Then I constructed a soldering station for my diploma thesis at the electronics technical school in Piotrków Trybunalski, . But I had a small delay. I defended my diploma in September.

“Your spine is broken. We have to operate on him quickly.” This is what I learned from the doctors after I regained consciousness the next day after the accident. They started the procedure but they did not finish it. Blood was filling my lungs. I ended up in the ICU. Laying flat on my bed for a month. I couldn't even lift my head. Once I could breathe on my own and they cleared up the wound infection from the first treatment, I underwent the actual surgery to decompress my spinal cord and stabilize my spine. If I had it earlier, maybe I would be fitter.

I didn't believe that I would not be able to walk again. I also did not believe the doctors, nor to the boy from the Foundation for Active Rehabilitation (FAR). He visited me and showed me how to move around in a wheelchair. I haven't come to terms with the fact that I won't walk. But I realized that if other people could live with it, so could I. I just need to find the best way for me.

Rehabilitation camps. This is where I started my search. I wanted to get back in shape and lose some weight. Long weeks of treatment and recovery made me put on weight. Swimming helped. Good thing I learned swimming when I was a child. My muscles remembered the crucial movements. Exercising on a horizontal bar in the past also helped.. My arms were getting stronger and stronger.

I also gained new professional skills. Computer graphics, web designing and photo processing. That was my new direction.

I was living an active life. I also started to train wheelchair basketball, which I learned about at the FAR camp. Then I studied IT at the Lodz University of Technology. And a year later, I worked as an office worker in an OSH company. I trained for fun and health benefits. I didn't expect that I would ever reach the Polish National Team and participate in the Summer Paralympic Games in London in 2012.

"Spread your wings". This is the name of the PAY IT FORWARD Foundation's project, in which people with disabilities learn to fly paragliders and gliders. I also took part in it. My choice was paragliding. When I fly, I feel free, unrestricted by the wheelchair. I feel like I can "reach for the sky" no matter what,

I moved to Konin and started working there. And all of that thanks to the PAY IT FORWARD Foundation. I help people with disabilities who, like me, want to learn how to live again.

My name is PIOTR.
I am a sports instructor for disabled people and an independent living instructor.
I am a quadriplegic.
I am an INDEPENDENT PERSON.

PAY IT FORWARD - Peter

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