EDUCATORS WITHOUT BORDERS

"A lot of academic don't care about solutions, they first want to write about problems."

- Prof. Anna Hunter

The Marathon of Hope (Part IV)

The Wheel-Chaired Celebrities

By Prof. Talaat I. Farag

No one is immune from having a health crisis at some point in her/his life journey. Babies may be born with major congenital anomalies, children in the pre-school age may suffer from autism, accidents may occur at any age, and with increasing life expectancies, many diseases like cancer and Alzheimer's are much more common today. In this section we present several inspirational stories of heroism over debilitating physical ailments. The following real-life stories illustrate the remarkable achievements of different people suffering from varying health problems and serve as examples of how crises can be overcome. The extraordinary achievements of the Canadian runner Terry Fox and American cyclist Lance Armstrong were featured in the January 2007 issue. They have become some of the most prominent symbols of battle against disease in the modern age. In this fourth part, we present examples of heroes who have overcome various medical problems, including wheel-chaired celebrities.

First Wheel-Chaired Lt. Governor in Canada

David Onley is the 27th Lt. Governor of Ontario. This long-time Toronto broadcaster, who had polio as a child, is paralyzed from the waist down (paraplegia), and uses a motorized scooter.

The staff of Queen's Park found a way for the province's first disabled. A new elevator and automatic doors have been installed to provide easier access to his suite, which is used for administrative and formal functions. Since he cannot walk up the imposing flight of stairs at the western entrance to the building, leading directly to his 2-storey suite, he has to scooter down an access ramp to the basement-level cafeteria, and take public elevators to the suite. Staff at Ontario legislature regularly scramble to clear a scooter friendly path for Mr. Onley.

He was sworn in as Lieutenant Governor in September 2007, at Queen's Park in Toronto. As the province's first lieutenant governor with a disability, Onley said he would use his vice-regal position to help remove physical barriers for Ontarians with disabilities, as well as focus on other issues affecting the disabled, including obstacles to employment and housing. Onley also stated, in his appointment speech, that he would expand on his immediate predecessor's aboriginal literacy initiative, his aim being to see computers on every student's desk in northern schools.

First Quadriplegic Member of Parliament

Steven Fletcher, 32-years-old, almost died when his car hit a moose in 1996. He has become a magnet for long-stifled hopes. He prides himself on exceeding expectations. After his accident, he led the University of Manitoba Student's Union, and earned a Masters degree in business. The former kayaking champion and canoeing instructor, won first prize in 2001 Mobility Cup, an international regatta founded by British Columbia's Disabled Sailing Association.

In 2004, he was elected as a Conservative Party Member of Parliament. He said, "I was elected to deal with healthcare, accountability, and issues surrounding investment in the military and post-secondary education. And I am going to focus on those aspects." He is Canada's first quadreplegic MP, who is paralyzed from the neck down. When he was elected, he was forced to use the back entrance through the kitchen, to join his new colleagues for lunch in the swank parliamentary restaurant. His motorized wheel-chair is too big for the accessible elevators.

Quadriplegic Lawyer and Fighter for Disability Rights

Dave Shannon's (LLB, LLM) newly released book entitled Six Degree of Dignity: Disability in an Age of Freedom (published by Creative Bound Inc.). He has quadriplegia as a result of a rugby accident at the age of 18, advocates for the rights of people with disability. He has wheeled some 9,000 km across Canada to raise awareness about people with disability, practiced in the area of health and civil law and participated in legal reform. While in college, Shannon served a term as the Dalhousie Student Union President in 1989-90. His father was a health education professor. He completed his graduated law studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

In his book, he advocates a holistic approach which encompasses dignity in public perception: dignity in the community, law, public policy, of self and in future, which points to the promise of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. He was involved in the drafting of the convention as a representation of the Canadian Association for Independent Living Centers. In his 1997 cross-country awareness tour he spoke directly to school community and corporate groups and reached many more through media coverage.

Searching for Miracles in China

The website for Beike biotechnology bursts with stories about medical miracles with the controversial umbilical stem cell therapy administered at Nanchan Hospital in Shenzhen, China, claiming that this treatment cures the incurable. In a 2006 research paper published in Neuro-rehabilitataion and Neural Repair, several north American doctors followed up with patients who have received stem cell research in China for years. Few of them had improved since returning from China. George Arruda, an Ontarian man with ataxia who complains of imbalance and coordination problems flew to Nanchan for four spine injections and two intravenous drips. His is one of the long list of neural conditions that BIKE mentioned they can cure including epilepsy, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), cerebral palsy, spinal cord injury and strokes. Mr. Arruda knew it was an uncertain therapy but since his return to Canada he had a relapse of symptoms. Dr. Tim Caulfield, Canada Research Chairman of Health Law and the University of Alberta and a member of a Canadian Network of Stem Cell Research said that "even though the scientific community is deeply sceptical, people just associate the term [Beike] with hope. It is a perfect area for quackery." Although they claim that 86% of their clients show some measure of improvement, much of their claims are now subject to scrutiny. Mr. Arruda and others with similar conditions are advised not to place their full faith in these undocumented treatments.

Canada's First Sikh Billionaire!

Bob Dhillon is a cancer survivor. At 21, he was probably Canada’s youngest Indian-Canadian millionaire. At 41, he is close to becoming Canada’s first Sikh billionaire. His father was born in Hong Kong, although his roots are from Punjab, India, where all the Sikhs come from.  His grandfather had left the village long ago for Hong Kong where he started a North China Shipping Company to carry goods to and from Japan. He was born in 1965 in Japan. As a small kid, his family moved to Liberia to do business and he was sent to India to study at Bishop Cotton School in Shimla. When the civil war in Liberia ruined their business in the early 1970s, young Dhillon’s family moved to Vancouver. By 1998, he completed his MBA from the University of Western Ontario in Canada.

In 1997, he founded Mainstream to buy, improve, and manage multi-family dwellings, to become a successful entrepreneur. Today, he is Canada’s biggest South Asian landlord, owning almost 5,000 residential properties across this country. Mr. Dhillon is dreaming to become a symbol and mentor for the young Sikhs of Canada, and is on his way to becoming the first Sikh billionaire.

Other Articles in this Series:

Talaat I. Farag. "The Marathon of Hope: How to Conquer Any Health Crisis," The Ambassadors Magazine. Vol. 8, Issue. URL: http://ambassadors.net/archives/issue18/educators.htm

Talaat I. Farag. "The Marathon of Hope (Part II): Learning from those who conquered disease?," The Ambassadors Magazine. Vol. 9, Issue 1, URL: http://ambassadors.net/archives/issue19/educators.htm

Talaat I. Farag. "The Marathon of Hope (Part III): Learning from those who conquered disease?," The Ambassadors Magazine. Vol. 10, Issue 2, URL: http://ambassadors.net/archives/issue22/educators.htm

Prof. Talaat I. Farag, MD, FRCP, FACP, FACMG is a former adjunct professor at Dalhousie University in Canada. He is the founder of The Ambassadors Research Foundation in 1998. Email: tfarag@dal.ca. 

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