This year, the CSRO and our supporters took part in the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon. As part of our Paving the Way for a Cure campaign, we rallied our new partners at the 407 ETR, and the OPP, as well as longtime supporters Permobil and Simone Performance to come out and walk, wheel, run with us as Team Cure.
Our Team Cure captains were Joshua Forbes, CSRO Ambassador and SCI survivor, as well as Sean Sullivan, a longtime supporter of the CSRO, as well as Barry Munro, our Chief Development Officer and dedicated SCI advocate. By sharing our story throughout their networks, as well as the generous support of corporate sponsors like Simone Performance and Permobil we were able to come together and raise $28,000 for spinal cord injury research.
This is significant for a few reasons – the timing, for one. Currently, we are waiting on Health Canada approval for our first Canadian trial of transcutaneous neuromodulation. This technology is restoring function for many users worldwide and we are very excited about the implications for improvement of secondary conditions of SCI such as bowel and bladder restoration, and neuropathic pain management.
Additionally, these funds will allow our community to continue to advocate for the small, consistent wins on the research side that can improve life so much for those of us living with paralysis. As we know, walking is only a part of the desired outcome – we deal with a host of difficulties in day to day life that are legitimate challenges in their own right. It’s what you don’t see that is the real problem. For example, in order to be at the race for 7am meeting time, Joshua Forbes had to wake up at 3am to begin his morning routine and get there that early in the morning. Can you imagine what that would be like? It’s the reality of SCI.
And it’s these realities that we’re addressing with every race, fundraising event, and awareness campaign. We want to thank our amazing team, who went above and beyond to raise funds for spinal cord injury research with us, our corporate sponsors for their generous support – and everyone who came out to support us at the race. We hope to grow Team Cure to be even bigger in the spring and take part in even more races for a cure to SCI.
THANK YOU.