A newsletter for new supporters of
Spinal Cord Injury BC
Welcome to SCI BC and thank you for your support. Thanks to passionate and dedicated donors like you, we are able to help people with spinal cord injuries or related disabilities – and their families – adjust, adapt and thrive in communities throughout the province.
INSIDE • The Gifford Family Story • How Your Donation Makes an Impact • Keep in Touch
About Spinal Cord Injury BC How a community was created The Canadian Paraplegic Association was born out of the ashes of WWII. Prior to the 1940’s, people with spinal cord injuries rarely survived. Soldiers returning from battle as paraplegics and quadriplegics found the physical environment at home to be unwelcoming and isolating. Nor did their family, friends and health care professionals have any real expertise or ability to truly understand what these men were going through.
A group of injured soldiers formed together and set out to create a community of “members helping members”, learning from each other – their peers – on how to meet the uphill struggle of adjusting to a new life where everything had changed, forever. Here in British Columbia, the Canadian Paraplegic Association – known today as Spinal Cord Injury BC (SCI BC) – broke down barriers preventing people with spinal cord injuries from engaging in and contributing within an “able bodied” world. Thanks to donors like you, the spirit of this post-war organization is alive and thriving.