Jason has a remarkable to story to tell about overcoming a tragic accident and his resilience and courage in his fight for recovery. This is Jason’s story and we are so pleased to able to help him in his difficult road to recovery.
“My name is Jason Apps I am from Bega on the New South Wales far south coast. I moved to Newcastle when I was 15 and attended Kotara high school where I made lifelong friends and played football for the Kotara Bears. While attending School I was offered a carpentry apprenticeship based in Newcastle which I took up at the age of 17. Over the next three years I played two grand finals for the Bears and transferred over to Souths for under 19s. I completed my apprenticeship at the end of 2015, I decided to move to Canada to little snow village called Whistler, it was a trip of a lifetime. Five months later in March 2016 I had a catastrophic snowboarding injury leaving me a C4 quadriplegic on life support unable to move anything from the chest down. I spent the next three weeks in intensive care in Canada before being flown home back to Australia with a team of four doctors are nurses on board the aircraft to Sydney where I spent the next nine months doing rehab in Prince of Wales hospital Randwick.
During my time in hospital I was contacted by Steve Young my under 19s coach on behalf of Sleapy’s foundation inviting me along to Sleapy’s day. I think this is one of my first outings I had leaving the hospital, we took the trip up the M1 to Newcastle where I was greeted with love and support from the community and Sleapy’s foundation. It was a day I will not forget. Having the continual support of the foundation drives me with motivation to continue my rehab to gain every bit of independence I can which is life changing in this situation. I’m currently on the Gold Coast training at a spinal rehab centre working on standing independently and finding new nerve pathways.
My goal is to keep training hard and staying healthy I believe there is a cure out there it’s just a matter of when, I hope one day to walk on that stage to thank Sleapy personally for all his hard work and dedication he has put into the foundation helping others not just myself face adversity. It may not be tomorrow or the next day but I do believe there is a light at the end of the tunnel and I will continue to chip away until I reach that light.
Thank you Sleapy’s foundation I am forever grateful”.
