The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

the stouffville sun tuesday jan 14 2003 page 5 community rallies around bike accident victim from page 1 anderson i have a little flicker in my left thumb ive felt it every once in a while its things like that that matter here mr andersons neversaynever attitude is the most important thing he could hold onto stresses dr gaetan tardif vice president of med icine and physician in chief of toronto rehabilitation institute the key is to be realistic but still to never give up hope to walk again explained dr tardif we have to strike a fine balance said the doctor the patients need hope to get through it could be a long long haul but research is being carried out to reconnect the spinal injury it could be possible in a few years to recon nect we do not give up spinal cord rehabilitation helps maximize the independence of indi viduals who have a spinal cord injury at lyndhurst the rehabilitation team works directly with the patients the team is made up of a chaplain a dietitian a pharmacist a psycholo gist a speech therapist a language therapist a respiratory specialist a therapeutic recreationist and a repre sentative from the local community care access centre patients are encouraged to rebuild their lives through treatment special ized therapy and counseling mr anderson points out that the ultimate goal is to help patients become as independent as possible so they can return to their own communities its been 10 weeks since the acci dent as mr anderson lay helpless at the bottom of the steep hill on the other side of the country he didnt know it then but his life had taken a drastic turn his future would include helping hands from caring people he would no longer go solo through life as mr anderson lay semicon scious and broken he depended on a friend to use a cell phone to alert a rescue team of his plight using chain saws and machetes rescuers cut their way through the bush to reach the criticallyinjured cyclist when his parents bill and chris anderson of main street stouffville were notified of the accident they made immediate arrangements to fly to bc a medical team meanwhile was carrying out emergency treat ment at a nelson hospital and anoth er team was making arrangements to airlift luke to vancouver where hed receive muchneeded specialty care two weeks later accompanied by his mother mr anderson was once again airlifted this time to a toronto u we as friends dont hear how much we matter to each other as friends until something like this happens luke anderson 5 hospital just before christmas he was admitted to lyndhurst to begin an intensive therapy program he was thrilled to leam that he could get around the centre near sunnybrook hospital in an electric wheelchair he has enough feeling around his left wrist to operate the joy stick on the wheelchair since mr anderson has head movement his longterm goal of achieving indepen dent living is within reach who knows what will happen i am going to give it my all he said mr anderson has no motion below the chest still hes confident that with daily therapy spread over a long period of time hell gain even more strength in his arms my left arm is getting stronger he said it will take longer for the right arm there was a lot more dam age on the right side mr anderson remains a gifted engineer with career goals and aspira tions i hope to go into engineering design in the future he said prior to october mr anderson was work ing in new home construction using a traditional timber framing tech nique his plan is to return to this particular field i hope to incorpo rate this framing technique into design engineering i will carry on i will return to engineering thats what i am mr anderson is certainly not alone his family has been by his side every step of the way his friends are behind him too just after christmas a dance at latcham hall raised close to 15000 the money will go luke anderson i will return to engineering thats what i am bill roberts photo towards mr andersons goal of attaining independent living he attended the event i was overwhelmed by the sup port and generosity of my family and friends said mr anderson we as friends dont hear how much we matter to each other as friends until something like this happens every once in a while we should stop and remind our friends how important we are to each other it was a wonderful party the support and generosity shown to me has been amazing the toronto rehabilitation institute was established in 1998 with the amalgamation of the queen elizabeth hillcrest and lyndhurst hospitals and the toronto rehabilitation centre effective monday january 6 there is improved train service to our new mount joy go station there is a new morning and a new evening southbound trip and a new northbound evening trip as well the morning northbound trjp that ran from union station express to the markham go station will now run express to the mount joy go station instead go buses serve the station during offpeak hours and on weekends to accommodate these changes times along the entire line have been slightly adjusted for more details visit our website or just give us a call m ooutribourii to union imoinrlbound from union 617 am arrive at union at 705 am 655 am arrive at union at 743 am 728 am arrive at union at 816 am new 837 am arrive at union at 925 am new 725 pm arrive at union at 813 pm new 735 am express to mount joy arriving at 827 am 418 pm arrive at mount joy at 503 pm 448 pm arrive at mount joy at 533 pm 520 pm arrive at mount joy at 605 pm new 630 pm arrive at mount joy at 715 pm 4 16 8 6 9 3 2 0 0 18 8 8 get on go wwwgotransitcom 1 8 00 3 8 7 3 6 5 2