Brooke Thabit, who was born in Boca Raton, became an ambassador for Wings of Life
after a diving accident left her paralyzed. Thabit has regained some movement in her arms.
Photo provided
By Sallie James
Brooke Thabit was a competitive surfer, with a job in a surf shop and big plans for her future, when a carefree dive off a dock left her paralyzed.
On Labor Day 2012, when she was 17, Thabit fractured her neck when she launched into water that turned out to be waist-deep.
Today Thabit, who was born and raised in Boca Raton but lived in Stuart when the accident happened, is an ambassador for the Wings for Life Run. The organization raises awareness and money for spinal cord injury research. Neither Thabit’s limited mobility nor her wheelchair defines her ability to contribute. She will participate in the May 7 run in Sunrise.
“I’m still alive,” said Thabit, a student at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Atlanta. “It was very hard and it still is hard, but I have gotten more used to it now. I am hoping with time and with a cure, things will happen.”
The Wings for Life Run kicks off at 7 a.m. at BB&T Center in Sunrise and winds through the city, eventually making a northwest turn along U.S. 27. The event is a running and wheelchair event held across 34 countries. All participants are to begin at exactly the same time around the world.
Participants set their own goals and they don’t head toward a distant finish line. Instead, the finish line catches up with them. A half-hour after the race starts, a moving finish line, the Catcher Car, follows participants along the course, gradually getting faster until each one is caught. The first people passed after a few kilometers are the first to celebrate their accomplishments, while the last man and woman to be caught are declared Global Champions. (The record is 88.44 kilometers.)
The entry fee is $60, and proceeds go to spinal cord research, with administrative costs covered by the Red Bull Foundation.
Thabit has limited movement in her arms, thanks to a surgery called a tendon transfer in which her biceps muscle was moved to her triceps. She also underwent a nerve transfer that may eventually give her movement in her hand, said her mother, Alison Thabit.
After she was injured, Brooke Thabit spent a month in intensive care, then was transferred to the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, where she underwent extensive rehabilitation for her spinal cord injuries.
“We are so proud of her tenacity and her hard work,” said her mother, who moved the family back to Boca Raton after her daughter was injured. “She has never said, ‘Mom, why did this happen to me?’ ”
Her goals and dreams are different from what they were when she was 17, but she’s determined to make a difference. She hopes to use her studies in interior design to make universal design/disabled accessible architecture look less sterile, and wants to study overseas.
She recently began driving a modified Ford Explorer.
“It was really hard in the beginning but I try not to dwell on it too much. Your perspective is everything. The people you surround yourself with are really what life is about,” Brooke Thabit said. “People who love you will do everything for you.”
Alison Thabit said the family has received support from all sides. “I am so happy for her to be living. She was one of the most independent 17-year-olds.”
To register or donate, go to www.wingsforlifeworldrun.com/us/en/sunrise-fl/
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