Imagine you wake up one day, groggy from the barrage of drugs and painkillers you have been given.  You are told you were in a bad car accident, that your spine is broken and that you will never walk again.  That is the story of my wife’s cousin Derek Berry.

Derek was a young professional soccer player and coach living in El Cajon, California.  One night he got into his car and drove to a fast food restaurant to get something to eat.  Driving home, he reached for his soda, lost control of the car and hit a tree, thus beginning a very difficult new chapter in his life.

For the past several years, with the unbelievable support and assistance of his mother and father, Sharon and Dave King, Derek has fought untold adversities from diabetes, to uncontrollable physical tremors, to internal medication pumps that stubbornly refuse to correctly do what they are supposed to do.  He fought these battles as a full-on quadriplegic, confined to a wheelchair.

He had victories as well.  As a young professional athlete, his academic career was never his foremost priority.  However once his condition became more or less stabilized, he correctly reasoned that the one thing that worked well in his body was his brain.  So he enrolled at San Diego State University where he earned a Business Degree in Accounting with honors.  He went to work for Ernst and Young and followed on with a position at a medical equipment company, but the rigors of long hours and severely limited mobility proved to be too much to maintain on a day-to-day basis.

Graduation Day – SDSU

He also learned how to drive.  He has a limited amount of mobility in his arms.  He has enough movement that he can feed himself and he re-learned how to drive with the assistance of a tricked out van that he completely operates with his hands. It has an automatic ramp that folds out through the side door where he can roll up into the van and then into the driver’s position where he locks his wheelchair into place.

Derek’s first tricked out van.

During the last few years, he has done some fun things as well, like skydiving out of an airplane.  He went on world cruises with his parents, even though the logistics of traveling half-way around the world in an airplane is a huge challenge for a quadriplegic.

Getting ready to jump

In the wind!

Then one day a couple of years ago, he started a new journey to change his life in yet another major way.  He set out to learn how to walk.  He has been working at a special facility called Project Walk, that specializes in rehabilitation of spinal chord injury victims.  Here are a few photos from earliest days at Project Walk around the end of 2012.

Fast forward to October of 2013 and we have a short video clip of Derek taking a few steps down the red carpet.  This is a dress rehearsal for Project Walk’s annual Steps to Recovery event where all of the participants walk down the red carpet accompanied by the cheers of loving onlookers.

He has continued his therapy at Project Walk and now walks over 100 feet every day at his home.  But this therapy is expensive so several of his friends got together to hold the first of several fundraisers to underwrite his rehabilitation.  Known as Team Derek, Derek’s friends and family gathered together to make it happen for him.  The event had some exercise activities to entertain the guests.  T-shirts were for sale along with tickets for several raffle prizes and a number of silent auction items.  I won a very cool long-board skateboard in the silent auction.  I don’t know how much they raised, but I am sure it was a great start!

Team Derek Logo

Jodie and Derek

Raffle Prizes

So we wish Derek all the best.  He has shown amazing perseverance and determination.  We are looking forward to the day when he jogs up the big hill to our house!

Project Walk Website: http://projectwalk.com/