Travis Roy

It was only eleven seconds into a college hockey game when the accident occurred. He was attempting to check a player from the opposing team, but it went horribly wrong. He would become paralyzed from the waist down, his hockey career over. Travis Roy's life changed forever in this single moment.

Travis grew up in a small town in Maine. His father managed the local ice rink, and so Travis had the opportunity to skate since he was very young. He says that one thing he remembers well from his childhood is when he played pickup hockey games on a nearby pond when it froze. Travis also played hockey in organized leagues. His teams had to travel often, but Travis didn't mind; in fact, he actually enjoyed it. Hockey wasn't the only sport Travis enjoyed; he loved playing all sports and always being active.

Travis may have loved sports, but he wasn't fond of academics. Travis has a form of dyslexia, which made academics hard for him. Travis says, "My parents had one simple rule: if you don't have good grades, no sports." He says that he always worked hard to keep his grades up. He maintained a B average and was able to continue his hockey career through high school. Travis played college level hockey at Boston University. In the first eleven seconds that he played of his first college level hockey game, Travis was injured attempting to check another player. He instantly knew it was really bad. Travis was brought to the hospital and it was determined that he was paralyzed from the waist down (paraplegic).

Travis said that when he was in the hospital after his accident, he met many other spinal cord injured survivors and their families. Travis said that these families didn't have good insurance, and in some cases, no insurance at all. Travis explained, "It was hard to watch people struggle and be in such despair." He also explained to me that there is a lot of equipment to help those with spinal cord injuries, such as a wheelchair. The insurance of the families Travis met just wouldn't cover any of this equipment. Travis had great insurance which allowed him to get equipment to help him deal with his spinal cord injury. Travis had a very supportive family and people who raised money to aid Travis. Travis's story caught the media's attention, and with that media attention Travis could share the stories of other people who had gotten spinal cord injuries. Travis said, "I also wanted to walk again someday, and I knew the only way I could help make that happen was to raise money and awareness."

Travis decided to write a book called 11 Seconds. Travis struggled trying to think of a good idea to raise money. He couldn't do something as simple as a bake sale; Travis had to do something bigger, knowing that spinal cord injury equipment was expensive. He also struggled figuring out a way to distribute the money effectively. One day a man named Pat O'Connor read Travis's book. Pat found the phone number for the law firm that administers the Travis Roy Foundation. He spoke with Art Page (the manager of the wiffle ball team, the Boston Beef, in the recently organized wiffle ball tournament that supported the Travis Roy Foundation). After hearing about the replica Fenway Park that was going to be built and Pat's desire to hold a fundraiser, Art told Pat that he would be interested in doing the tournament.

The Travis Roy Foundation was officially formed. When the foundation started there was only about three grants given out to spinal cord injury survivors. It would take time for the foundation to grow and be able to give out a larger amount of grants. To move forward and grow required hard work and hope. When Travis went through school with a form of dyslexia, he had to work hard to keep his grades up so he could play sports. I feel like this translated to his hard work for the Travis Roy Foundation. The foundation grew year after year; a little some years, a lot other years. The foundation organized many different events to raise money: jewelry sales, sponsoring runners in the Boston Marathon, charity hockey games, a few different wiffle ball tournaments like the one Pat was involved in, and even a spring fling. The foundation grew to a point that it could give between 100-150 grants every year.

The Travis Roy Foundation also put its money towards research. The findings about spinal cord injuries and how spinal cords function has increased over the years. The findings give hope to spinal cord injury survivors and their families. Travis said, "Waking would be amazing, but just being able to move my hands well enough to be able to drive would change my life." The spinal cord connects all parts of the body to the brain. If part of the spinal cord is damaged, then the brain wouldn't be able to send messages to certain parts of the body such as the legs, not allowing the person to move or use them. Scientists have been experimenting with electrical stimulation around the spinal cord. The electrical stimulation helps nerves reconnect, allowing a person to at least feel the body part(s) that they couldn't feel before. Electrical stimulation won't let someone like Travis walk again, but it will give him feeling in his legs which would be a huge, amazing change for Travis.

At this point, scientists can only test electrical stimulation on rats and mice. Scientists are unsure of what the effects might be on a human, and it would be too dangerous to find out by testing it on someone. Travis understands this, and although disappointing, there is hope that in the future scientists will have done enough testing to be allowed to use electrical stimulation on humans.

There are other ideas of how to aid those with spinal cord injuries. One idea is the exoskeleton suit which is a mechanism that gets attached to someone's body and aids them with moving their arms and legs. Travis wouldn't be able to use an exoskeleton successfully because at this point because his body has adapted to being in a wheelchair. Even if Travis was to wear an exoskeleton, his body wouldn't be physically ready to stand and walk. Travis would have to use the exoskeleton for physical therapy. Travis still has hope for the future. He explained, "Electrical stimulation and exoskeletons might not allow spinal cord injury survivors to walk when used separately, but what if they were combined?"

Travis has volunteered his time to donating money for the research of spinal cords and raising money to give out grants to others with spinal cord injuries. He started the foundation out of compassion for others with spinal cord injuries. Travis is a great volunteer who has always kept hope that a cure will be found, and he works hard to contribute to finding it. I look up to Travis as a role model and I think everyone should hear his story.