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History
Everything started from a sad accident that happened in 2014 in Sherbrooke, Quebec. A young athlete and university student broke his cervical spine while doing gymnastics and as a result of this he became tetraplegic.
Our founder was touched by this accident and decided to bring to Sherbrooke the effective spinal cord injury recovery program that had been available for more than a decade in Japan, her native country, and also in Canada through First Steps Wellness Centre (FSWC Regina), a charitable organization founded in 2008 in Regina, Saskatchewan.
FSWC Regina is the Canadian pioneer in the field of exercise-based recovery programs specially developed for spinal cord injuries. By coincidence or not, the founder of First Steps Wellness Centre, Mr. Chris Lesanko suffers from tetraplegia due to an accident that happened in Sherbrooke while he was a student of Bishop's University.
After our founder spent three months as a volunteer at FSWC Regina and having witnessed how beneficial for spinal cord injured people and their families it is to have access to this life-changing program, she knew she had to bring this program back home to Sherbrooke. From this experience, FSWC Québec was founded in 2017 in Sherbrooke, with the help of generous members of our community with various backgrounds including the medical and legal fields.
Now with the continuous support our devoted volunteer board of directors, Ms. Diane Roy and Mr. Carl Marquis and our wonderful volunteer members who are helping with our website, translation, video making, we are getting so close to creating new hope for the people of Quebec. As a partner of FSWC Regina, FSWC Québec strives to provide the best spinal cord injury recovery methods possible. While more and more clinics are becoming available these days, FSWC Québec focuses on long-term accessibility to the intensive program by having chosen to operate as a charity organization.
Our founder was touched by this accident and decided to bring to Sherbrooke the effective spinal cord injury recovery program that had been available for more than a decade in Japan, her native country, and also in Canada through First Steps Wellness Centre (FSWC Regina), a charitable organization founded in 2008 in Regina, Saskatchewan.
FSWC Regina is the Canadian pioneer in the field of exercise-based recovery programs specially developed for spinal cord injuries. By coincidence or not, the founder of First Steps Wellness Centre, Mr. Chris Lesanko suffers from tetraplegia due to an accident that happened in Sherbrooke while he was a student of Bishop's University.
After our founder spent three months as a volunteer at FSWC Regina and having witnessed how beneficial for spinal cord injured people and their families it is to have access to this life-changing program, she knew she had to bring this program back home to Sherbrooke. From this experience, FSWC Québec was founded in 2017 in Sherbrooke, with the help of generous members of our community with various backgrounds including the medical and legal fields.
Now with the continuous support our devoted volunteer board of directors, Ms. Diane Roy and Mr. Carl Marquis and our wonderful volunteer members who are helping with our website, translation, video making, we are getting so close to creating new hope for the people of Quebec. As a partner of FSWC Regina, FSWC Québec strives to provide the best spinal cord injury recovery methods possible. While more and more clinics are becoming available these days, FSWC Québec focuses on long-term accessibility to the intensive program by having chosen to operate as a charity organization.
Board of Directors
Mr. Carl Marquis, President
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paraplegic since the age of 15 after breaking his thoracic spine in a ski accident. At the time of his accident, talking about the possibility to regain the lost function or to have a hope to walk again was not even on the table of discussion during his two-month rehabilitation program.
Under such devastating circumstances, with his strong resilience, he never gave up his passion for sports. After having won the world title in sledge hockey, he started wheelchair racing. He competed in three Paralympic Games including the Atlanta games where he won a bronze medal in the 4x400 m relay. He also achieved the world record in the 4 x100 m relay in the world championship in England. He is presently a member of the Quebec curling team that won the canadian champion title in 2013 and a professional financial advisor for Desjardins Wealth Management. Even though 34 years have passed since his accident, he has never lost his belief in undiscovered physical potential. Once he learned from our founder that an effective program like FSWC's had existed for a long time elsewhere, he instantly knew that he had to do something to bring it to his community. Despite all the wonderful experiences he has made through sports, these activities never helped him better his legs. He decided to devote himself as a president of a volunteer board to bring the best recovery program available for now, a new hope for people living with spinal cord injury who wish to better themselves. |
Ms. Diane Roy, Vice-president
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paraplegic since the age of 17 after breaking her thoracic spine during an ATV accident.
She is a Canada's top international wheelchair racer. She has performed in six consecutive Paralympic Games, is a six-time world championships medalist and she has taken part in five Commonwealth Games. Physical activities have always been a part of her life. As parasports helped her to be active again after her spinal cord injury, she believes that our recovery program which was unavailable at the time of her injury can also give incomparable benefit to help people who have sustained a spinal cord injury. She believes that all spinal cord injured people should have another option and be promptly informed of such an option which could allow them to be able to continue getting as mobile as possible, rebuilding strength, finding peers with whom they can encourage each other, and maintaining optimal health. |
Ms. Noriko Imaizumi, Secretary and Treasury
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having a father who was a former gymnast who later became completely paralyzed except for his eyelids due to a degenerative disease called Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), is the founder of FSWC Québec. She knows how difficult things can become.
The 2014 accident mentioned at the very beginning of this page happened to her son's favorite private gymnastic coach, Samuel, who became tetraplegic after a fall, just a night after he gave her son a gymnastics lesson. Her son liked Samuel so much, and he always said that he wanted to practice with Samuel ten thousand times per week.  with Samuel at the Rehabilitation Centre in Quebec
By knowing that there had been another complementary option available in her country, this was too traumatic to sit back and do nothing. She decided to make this life-changing recovery program for people with a spinal cord injury available in Quebec. She left her seventeen-year career in an automotive parts manufacturing company to make this happen, strictly as a full-time volunteer. She believes that thanks to the help of our community members, we also can make the life of our spinal cord injury people easier. |
Mr. Luc Côté, Administrator
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"With all the knowledge acquired about the organization and its program over the last few years, I am very confident that this program will bring relief to people with spinal cord injuries. I firmly believe in the possibilities of functional recovery below the level of spinal cord injury. The human body has regenerative capabilities that we have yet to discover. " - Luc Côté
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Mr. Paul Lessard, Administrator
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‘‘As an entrepreneur during 30 years, I have always been part of different CAs. After having had my right leg amputated in December 2016 and after experiencing many frustrations in a wheelchair, I have decided to get involved in improving the lot of people with reduced mobility. In the past, I have taken care of young people in many ways and I will help FSWC Quebec as much as I can. Finally, one of my qualities is that when I start or get involved in a project, I see it through to the end. I am also a team player.’’ - Paul Lessard
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Volunteer Team Members
Mr. Daniel Côté, volunteer, IT management team
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‘‘ I’m a person who enjoys physical activity and I wanted to become involved in a cause that would help my fellow men. As soon as I’ve heard of FSWC Québec I was deeply moved by its mission in helping others. I then immediately wanted to become involved in helping the injured in gaining as much mobility and independence as they can. The FSWC program has proven itself and it is an honor for me to become part of a team that will make as many people as possible benefit from it. ”
Daniel Côté Volunteer, IT management team |
Mr. Paul Senécal, volunteer, communications team
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‘‘ I became involved as a volunteer because since I have finished, in 2017, my rehabilitation period with great success, I can now understand the utmost importance of maintaining the effort, perseverance and willfulness in order to have success in achieving our individual physical goals. I am also convinced that FSWC Québec will be an unmeasurable help to many of its clients in the near future, hopefully helping them advance beyond their wildest dreams! Furthermore, I also have the privilege to benefit FSWC Québec with my translation degree. Thank you, FSWC Québec! ”
Paul Senécal Volunteer, communications team |
Mr. Jacques Vermette, volunteer, translator and linguistic advisor
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‘‘ When Diane Roy, vice-president of the FSWC Québec board contacted me to talk about a project concerning a new adapted training centre in Sherbrooke, I found the idea innovative and interesting. This type of project affected me particularly because of a family history in which I was very often in contact with the people in physical rehabilitation. In order to fulfil certain needs, Diane asked me if I wanted to get involved as a volunteer to translate the website, among other things. Because of my experience working in translation, all the ingredients were put together so that I could contribute to this beautiful project. Following an information meeting, I found that this centre could really help people who sustained a spinal cord injury go even further than what the public system was offering them. It didn’t take much more to convince me to join the team and get enthusiastically involved as a translator and language advisor. ”
Jacques Vermette translator and linguistic Advisor |
Mr. Didier Prince, volunteer, communications team
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‘‘ When I heard about the FSWC Quebec initiative, I immediately wanted to get involved in the project. The mission of FSWC Quebec is particularly important to me as I am a wheelchair user. I understand very well the importance of becoming as independent as possible. But beyond functional recovery, FSWC Quebec wants to develop an inclusive environment so that people who have suffered a spinal cord injury can exchange with each other and be part of a community. ”
Didier Prince Volunteer, communications & fundraising team |
Ms. Karine Vermette, volunteer, communications & fundraising team
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‘‘ I am at a point in my life where a great need to help, to contribute to something that could make a difference in people’s lives is being felt. Knowing that volunteering would be a really nice thing to do, but not knowing where to begin, it’s when I was talking with my dad (who is also a volunteer) that something clicked: FSWC Quebec is the perfect project for me to contribute to! Being a T12 complete paraplegic since a car accident at 11 years of age and a C5-C6 incomplete tetraplegic since a fall from my wheelchair when I was 22, I’ve learned from that young age to live a full life, differently, if we can call it that. Throughout my teenage years, with my father’s support, I’ve gained not only a great autonomy and independence, but I’ve also had the wonderful opportunity to go and try different adapted sports. Wheelchair basketball, para-alpine skiing, adapted waterskiing and handcycling, to name a few. It clearly made a difference in my young life, with all those nice people I met, to be able to work my body out and to surpass my limits. I can only imagine what a program like the First Steps Wellness Centre Quebec will do for people with spinal cord injuries. On our way towards progress! ”
Karine Vermette Volunteer, communications & fundraising team |
Mr. Gilles Simard, CPA, CA, volunteer, accountant and finance
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Mr. Matthieu Leblanc, volunteer, fundraising team
Ms. Hanane Boukabache, volunteer, fundraising team
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‘‘ I am above all the happy mother of two boys, Nail is my eldest, he is 15 years old, my greatest gift, suffering from cerebral palsy, my life has taken a different turn but certainly the best. But long before, I have always been driven by a deep passion, helping my fellow man, listening, consoling, and engaging in humanitarian causes is not new. Already in my previous life as a dentist, I was caring for children with malformations, overcoming obstacles and never stopping in front of the unusual is my motto. Later on, I started my fight to help my son evolve by taking with me many families I met on my way. In Algeria, Jordan, Emirates, France, Spain, Germany and finally Poland, we ended up finding high-level intensive therapy centers. Accompanied by other parents and their children, the stays followed one another, the progress is visible, and since then I started to inform the families around me of the importance of early and intensive therapy by creating an association of parents of children with cerebral palsy. Today, I continue to carry the torch. Here in Quebec City, the FSWC program is based on the same principles known in Europe, we must do something, make as many people as possible benefit from this therapy which has proven itself, and which I personally witnessed. ”
Hanane Boukabache volunteer, fundraising team |
Mr. Martin Lunkenbein, volunteer, communications & fundraising team
