Teen with cerebral palsy lives life to the fullest, proving national survey wrong
Posted Oct 13, 2016 09:19:15 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A recent survey out of the Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital in Toronto says that 45% of Canadians think people with disabilities don’t live a full life.
Wesley MaGee-Saxton is a patient at the hospital and he says the results were surprising and saddening.
“I was very shocked to find that out to be honest,” says Wesley. “I knew that perception existed but I didn’t know how prevalent it was. Yes, it’s challenging physically to live with a disability, but the social challenges can also be very difficult.”
Wesley is sixteen years old and has cerebral palsy, but he doesn’t let that stop him from following his dreams.
He says he’s just a regular teenage boy who hangs out with his friends, is at a special arts school training to become an actor, and even has a red belt in Tae Kwon Do, which is just two degrees below a black belt.
“When I’m paired with somebody new to do combat sparring, they’re often reluctant to take me because of the wheelchair,” says Wesley. “It’s very entertaining to take advantage of that and go to town, and teach them that way that they don’t have to be afraid of me.”
He says his Tae Kwon Do is a great metaphor for how he and other kids with disabilities want to be viewed.
“Children with disabilities just want to be kids. They don’t want to be kids with disabilities. So I would say to people, just let kids be kids.”
