Courage To Come Back: Physical Rehabilitation recipient never stops smiling

VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – He suffered a massive stroke, but never let its effects slow him down.

News1130’s profiles on the Courage To Come Back Award winners continues with a look at John Hedderson, the recipient for Physical Rehabilitation.

“This is an award [that] should be more for my wife than for me,” he says. “Because [if] it wasn’t for my wife, I’d have been dead.”

John Hedderson was just 36 when a massive stroke temporarily robbed him of his speech. “It was a bleed in my brain that caused my stroke and a bleed in the brain can happen to anybody.”

His challenges were only just beginning.

“I couldn’t speak. I must have been out in Never Never Land because there’s no way a guy that had a stroke is going to be able to do that.”

Even the most basic of tasks became impossible.

“In the hospital we went, and the nurse says, ‘Here, look. Try to get him to write his name.’ I couldn’t even write my name.”

There would be more setbacks, like the time he (clinically) died in a swimming a pool.

“I taught CPR and First Aid and a few other things and next thing I know, I’m dying at the pool,” he remembers.

“So, the next thing I remember I’m in the hospital and my GP [is] saying, ‘John, John!’ That’s the next thing I knew.”

He would go on advocate for the disabled and blind in his community, and those who have suffered strokes and head injuries too. His campaigning helped bring pedestrian signals to his adopted hometown of Campbell River.

John continues giving back to this day. “I haven’t stopped. The award helps but I haven’t stopped.”

Everyone who meets John always tells him the same thing.

“You don’t stop smiling. Well, no. I’m still alive,” he laughs.

“Hey, you gotta be what you gotta be, and it’s just glad to be alive.”

News1130 is a proud sponsor of the Coast Mental Health Courage To Come Back Awards, which will be handed out Thursday May 7th at the Vancouver Convention Centre.

The awards are presented by Coast Mental Health, a non-profit society benefiting the Lower Mainland’s most vulnerable citizens.

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