Wayman Tisdale’s battle

Wayman Tisdale lost his leg to cancer.  But through it all he never lost his joy.

A native Oklahoman, Wayman became the first Division-1 athlete to be named All-American in his first three seasons.  An olympic gold medal winner, he enjoyed a 12 year NBA career before pursuing his life-long passion of music.

He became an accomplished Jazz musician and has released several award winning albums.

Enjoy some of Wayman’s music below:

Amputee’s successful and motivating return to parachuting

Meet double amputee Dana Bowman who continues to skydive and then gives a motivational speech.  His story is pretty remarkable as just five months after having both of his legs amputated, Dana Bowman was back to doing what he loved — jumping out of airplanes.

In early 1994, Bowman, who was 31 at the time, was a member of the U.S. Army’s elite parachute team, the Golden Knights. During an annual training in Yuma, Ariz., Bowman and his teammate, Sgt. Jose Aguillon, collided in air at a combined speed of 300 mph.

The impact killed Aguillon and severed both of Bowman’s legs, one above the knee, one below.

After months of rehabilitation at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., Bowman asked his doctors for a weekend pass to skydive with his team at a wedding. The doctors laughed at the idea, but gave Bowman the pass, thinking he was joking about skydiving.

The following Monday, though, Bowman showed his doctors the photos and video of his weekend skydive, making sure to point out the prosthetic legs in the pictures, he said in a recent phone interview.

“Their eyes bugged out,” Bowman said of his doctors. “… They were just blown away.”

A few months later, in Nov. 1994, Bowman skydived into his re-enlistment ceremony for the U.S. Army. Bowman retired from the Army as a sergeant first class in 1997, and went back to school to become a pilot. Bowman is now a flight instructor and travels the country to tell his inspirational story of recovery.

And Thursday, Bowman, 46, will jump into Roseburg and share his story with Douglas County residents at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in honor of National Prosthetics Day. And even though Bowman spent more than 15 years in the military, his story speaks to people of all walks of life, he said.

“Everybody’s looking for motivation, inspiration, especially in these trying times,” he said.

Bowman hopes people will look at his story of tragedy and take note of how his attitude about the accident changed his life, he said.

“You just have to go out there and make the best out of life,” he said.

Read entire article Amputee to parachute into Rosberg

Below is the video

New Book Helps Stroke Survivors and Families

Someone in the United States has a stroke every 40 seconds on average and stroke is the third leading cause of death according to the American Heart Association. Ron Gardner, survivor of a severe stroke, understands what it feels like to have his life changed forever. He has made it his personal mission to better the lives of the other more than five million survivors and their loved ones with his new book, Take Brave Steps for Stroke Survivors and Families – A Message of Motivation and Hope.

The book teaches how motivation meets inspiration following a life altering event. Unlike other books, Gardner leads readers from “bitter to better.” He shares his heart-felt personal tragedies and triumphs over stroke and he guides survivors through the Take Brave Steps™ process, including Tips, Self-Reflections, and Exercises.

Ron explains how the book came to be.  “On the morning of November 5, 1997, I woke up and my life had changed forever. I had suffered a severe stroke in my sleep and when I woke up, I was paralyzed on my right side and barely able to speak.”

The issue was Ron did not immediately seek medical attention, and the focus of the book is to help people better understand what to do, and how to deal with all the challenges that come with a stroke.

“I did something terribly stupid. I was in denial and I said to myself, “This isn’t happening to me. I’ll walk this off. My foot is asleep.” Well that was the wrong thing to do. After more than six hours, I called my wife at work and alerted her that something had gone wrong and we finally went to the emergency room.  Unfortunately, I had suffered six more hours of brain damage. I hope others will learn to call 9-1-1 immediately if they have any similar symptoms.

“It took me approximately one year to learn to walk and talk again.  My wife and I found there was very little information related to the mental, emotional and social and family challenges we faced available. I decided to close that information gap and help millions of others by writing the book.”

“What makes this book special is that I share very personal accounts of the suffering and how I prevailed over the illness and that is where the reader’s journey to empowerment and wellness begins. I invite them to get actively involved with their own recovery by participating in self-reflections, tips and other helpful Brave Step tools.”

Brotherly love helping Udeze in fight against leukemia

Battling leukemia, Kenechi Udeze is about to receive his brother’s bone marrow, which is vital to Udeze’s long-term health and potential return to football. Read More