LONGWOOD, Fla. – Walkers and rollers joined the annual Walk and Roll-athon event aimed at raising money for paralysis patients on Saturday at Reiter Park in Longwood.
The event, hosted by NextStep Orlando, hopes to turn around the stigma associated with a paralysis diagnosis.
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When Amanda Perla was a senior in high school, she was in a car accident that left her paralyzed from the chest down.
When Perla was told that she would never walk again – her next step was to prove doctors wrong – and that’s when Perla and her mother decided on a different kind of therapy.
“Traditional physical therapy concentrates more on working with your abilities in the chair, and adapting to life in the wheelchair, and we wanted to find recovery options that got you out of the wheelchair, got your body moving again, got you standing and going through regular gate patterns like walking again,” Perla said.
After her success, she said her next step was to start an organization with her mother that helped others like her to turn around the stigma associated with paralysis – stigmas like never walking again.
“I think most people do, and that’s what we’re hear to change everyone’s minds and show that recover is possible,” Perla said.
Perla and her mother named that organization NextStep Orlando, and on Saturday, 20 people diagnosed with paralysis walked across her stage.
“I might have been the inspiration to start next step Orlando – but it’s really all the other clients that have come along the way and inspire me and motivate me to keep going,” Perla said.
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