Disruptive

How have concussions affected your life?: Concussions have affected my life in many ways. Both indirectly and directly I've experienced and seen others go through what is and can be an extremely frustrating process. Those being all the unknowns that come with concussions (at least what used to be unknowns growing up and playing sports). As a teenager playing contact sports like basketball and hockey, concussion was a scary word, no one wants to have one, and frankly people avoided even bringing them up. 

I continue to suffer from a memory that will lapse from time to time, but this is minor... Fortunately I don't suffer from headaches and other long-lasting injuries that I've seen others have to deal with for the remainder of their lives.

Why do you want to advocate for concussion awareness?: Since coming to Brock University and meeting Ryan & Seth, the negative stigma around concussions has changed, and so has how they affect peoples lives. I've personally seen so many athletes deal with these injuries. I want to bring awareness so that others don't have to go through the same difficult times!

Watching a guy like Michael Ferland who signed with the Vancouver Canucks (my team) and proceeded to basically loose this entire past season because of concussion related injuries reinforces the need for concussion awareness. 20 years ago people would have laughed at him, this year a plethora of individuals rallied around him and supported his and the organizations choice to wait until he was prepared to return to play. Symptom free. I host a podcast that interviews a variety of athletes that have all suffered from many different injuries, some you can see, and others you can't. I want to be sure that moving forward people put the same kind of emphasis on physical injuries as they do with every other kind. 

There's work to be done so let's start having fun!