“I can do this!” – Wesley
Wesley is currently designing and building spaceships - Lego spaceships, which he creates online. He tried real Lego blocks, but had difficulty sticking the pieces together.
Eleven-year-old Wesley has cerebral palsy, which affects his gross and fine motor skills. He is one of the most articulate young men you will ever meet, and very inventive. He is quick to find alternatives to enjoy his many interests, such as spaceship development and archery. With the help of his father, Wesley made custom attachments to his bow to keep the arrow in place.
“I’ve actually become quite good at archery,” he says, having once come close to hitting the bull’s eye. Wesley is also on a sledge hockey team thanks to a partnership between Holland Bloorview and Toronto Parks and Recreation, and he learned to swim at Holland Bloorview’s pool.
As if this wasn’t enough, Wesley has a green belt in taekwondo, which means he’s almost halfway to a black belt. Wesley’s early years were spent at Bloorview School Authority where he learned to advocate for himself. He put this learning to good practice at his taekwondo studio. Rather than practice separately, he asked to be integrated with the rest of the class. He also encouraged his fellow students to not go easy on him during sparing sessions.
“I would tell them ‘it’s okay – you can try harder against me,’” he says. “’I can take it. I’m not brittle.’”
At about the time Wesley began practicing taekwondo, his legs began to rotate inward. When he was nine, Wesley underwent surgery, which involved cutting his thigh bones to realign them. He spent the following three months at Holland Bloorview to rehabilitate. Once his casts were off, he underwent the extremely painful process of bearing weight on his legs.
“The physiotherapists were really good at helping him through everything,” says Jan, Wesley’s mom. “He especially loved the therapeutic clowns.”
Wesley has a sharp sense of humour and easily bonded with Dr. Flap, a mainstay therapeutic clown at Holland Bloorview. Once he was well enough, Wesley joined the Hospital’s recreational programs. Even after he was discharged, Wesley returned to Holland Bloorview as an outpatient to continue with his rehabilitation. A recreational therapist also goes to his home and they work on life skills, like using a rocker knife to help Wesley prepare meals.
“As a parent, I have a sense of comfort that there is a transition team at Holland Bloorview to help Wesley gain greater independence as he grows older,” says Jan.
Wesley is already thinking of what he may do when he grows up. While he entertains the thought of becoming a business consultant like his dad, he’s very attracted to the idea of broadcast news anchor, seeing it as a good opportunity to advocate for people with disabilities.
He’s off to a good start. The Elementary Teacher's Federation of Ontario selected him to be featured in an instructional video for teachers to learn how to effectively engage with kids with special needs.
Wesley also serves as an ambassador for Holland Bloorview and THREE TO BE, an organization that supports Holland Bloorview’s innovative clinical research study of robotics therapy for children with cerebral palsy. Wesley’s experience as an ambassador has empowered him. He loves seeing the effect his speeches have in raising funds to help kids with disabilities. He’s also discovered that he’s unafraid to speak to audiences as large as 1000 people.
Whatever Wesley decides to do, this bright young man will no doubt help open up a world of possibilities for others in addition to himself.
