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Trip to nowhere Enjoy your vacation without getting taken for a ride
GREG MEACHEM SETS UP THE REBELS, TIGERS SERIES PAGE B4
Red Deer Advocate WEEKEND EDITION SATURDAY, MARCH 28, 2015
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Bridging the gap
REDISCOVERING SPORT CAN HAVE A HUGE EFFECT ON THE LIVES OF THE PHYSICALLY DISABLED. BUT IF THEY CAN FIND A SPORT THAT SUITS THEIR CONDITION, THEY LIKELY HAVE TO TRAVEL NORTH OR SOUTH TO PLAY
BY JOSH ALDRICH ADVOCATE STAFF
For most people, reaching the age of 18 or 19 brings great change. They graduate high school, move to higher education or enter the workforce. Kendall Winter, a Rimbey native, had her life change in a very unexpected way. The aspiring surgeon and lifelong athlete was driving to Red Deer on an early September evening six years ago. She hit some loose gravel on Hwy 20, lost control of her car, hit the ditch and rolled. The incident left Winter, now 26, with a C6/7 spinal cord injury and in a wheelchair for life. She has limited range of motion and limited use of her hands. Her dreams of a being a surgeon were gone in an instant.
Photo by JEFF STOKOE/Advocate staff
Kendal Winter of Red Deer carries the ball during a demonstration of wheelchair rugby at Red Deer College during the recent Adapted PhysicalActivity Symposium at the college. Winter is a member of the Calgary Inferno and Alberta Provincial wheelchair rugby teams. “It’s definitely been a big change — a big thing was finding things again that even compared to anything active that you did as an able body person,” said Winter, who now lives in Red Deer. Rediscovering sport in the last year has made a big difference. Prior to her injury she played rugby, volleyball,
Photo by JAMES EMERY/ Hockey Canada Images
Tanner Fandrey, 18, had his hockey playing dreams taken away at the age of 13. He found his way back on the ice playing sledge hockey. He was recently named to the Canadian development team as one of the top young defencemen in the nation. The team just finished a three-game series with the U.S.
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soccer, basketball, golf and competed in biathlon. She particularly loved team sports and the relationships that are built through them. That was all taken away from her. But while attending a Bridging the Gap meeting in Red Deer — an outreach program through Wheelchair Sports Alberta — she was introduced to wheelchair rugby. Although she must travel to Calgary a couple times a week to play for the Inferno, it’s all been worth it, especially the development of new relationships through the sport. “It’s been huge,” said Winter, who after a year in the sport is already on the provincial B team. “It makes everything a little easier, just in the day-today things, you have a little more energy, you’re a little stronger.” Winter is now studying science at RDC. She wants to get her PhD and become a researcher studying neuro degenerative diseases like multiple sclerosis. Her story is not uncommon among adapted athletes in Central Alberta. If they can find a sport that suits their condition, they likely have to travel north or south on Hwy 2 to participate. Tanner Fandrey, 18, had his hockey playing dreams taken away at the age of 13. He was a fast riser in the Red Deer Minor Hockey system and a starting goalie on a bantam A team. He also skied and dove headlong into pretty much every sport he came across. But he also had a genetic disease called ankylosing spondylitis, an auto-immune disease that causes inflammation in the spine. When he was 13, it filled his pelvis with inflammation and attacked both hips, a process called avascular necrosis. “I use a wheelchair because both of my hips are dead and if I walk on them, they actually start to break apart,” he said. But it did not take long for Fandrey to find his way back on to the ice, in a sled, playing sledge hockey. “I had basically a normal life like all of the other Alberta boys out there, I wanted to play hockey and play in the WHL,” he said. “To have someone say basically all your dreams are over, it was pretty devastating. But at least I was able to adapt and change really quickly and get into sports.”
Please see ADAPT on Page A2
Co-pilot may have hidden illness A picture emerged Friday of a man who hid evidence of an illness from his employers — including a torn-up doctors note. Story on PAGE D9
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