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‘Perseverance’ hardly begins to define Kim Wedgerfield.
Nearly 20 years ago, the then married-mother of two was a busy CEO of a thriving company and on her way towards an MBA degree, when her life began taking a series of unexpected turns.
Today, she has given up her career and her marriage has ended, the results of two horrific accidents and the shattering discovery that she is suffering from a debilitating disease.
But despite reaching hitting the lowest point the human spirit can possibly endure, the Alberta-based triathlete picked herself up and is setting her sights set on qualifying for the World Triathlon Championships in Hamburg, Germany on Aug. 29 – and she is not about to let anything stop her; not even the car crash that put her in hospital for three trying months.
It was Feb. 13 and Wedgerfield was on her way to a spin cycle class when a red truck blew through a stop sign and right into the path of her 1991 van.
"The seatbelt and the steering wheel did in my spine and bladder and all sorts of stuff," she said. "My whole pelvic floor is just a mess."
Wedgerfield was finally released on May 8 – soon enough, in her mind, to start training.
"This has what has kept me going," she continued in a phone interview from Calgary. "When I was in the hospital, they told me I wouldn't race. Some said never again, some said for this triathlon, but I said, 'I need something to keep me going.' I knew I would never forgive the other driver if I didn't have the opportunity.
"This way, if I start the race and I can't finish, it's because I can't finish. At least I got there.
"I have to start."
The doctors have since told Wedgerfield, 48, that she will not cause any more damage to either the spine or the nerves if she does compete but that there will be considerable pain to deal with.
Wedgerfield is determined to cope -- just as she always has.
Four years ago, she was diagnosed with Huntington's Disease, an incurable inherited disease that causes nerve cells in the brain to waste away. Fourteen years before she was hit with that news, Wedgerfield was a married mother of two, a CEO. She had it all -- right up until an inattentive driver slammed into the back of her vehicle, leaving her with brain injuries and physical handicaps to overcome.
Wedgerfield, focused on relearning the simpliest of tasks, like tying her shoes, had to give up her career. Her marriage ended and her spirits plummeted to the point where she contemplated suicide.
Instead Wedgerfield took another path. She took up triathlon back in 1998 and last summer completed her first Olympic distance event in Edmonton, a milestone which qualified her for the worlds as an athlete with a disability.
She made it to Switzerland after fellow triathlete Chuck Amerongen teamed up with his business partners and financed the trip. Slipping into a Canadian jersey and sliding into Lake Geneva was a moment Wedgerfield will never forget.
It has been her motivation since February.
"I do remember the day that she came in, after all of her health-care providers had said that this race wasn't even a possibility, and said to me, 'OK, we're not going to tell anybody, but I'm doing that race.' That's Kim. She is unbelievable," said Carol Lawson, a social worker in Community Accessible Rehab.
"Watching her through all of this has shown me how she got through all the rest of the stuff in her life."
Just to compete in an event in Edmonton, Wedgerfield had to recruit a friend to drive her, round up a van for her gear, and find a place to stay that fit into her limited budget. So she did.
"All I have to do is think about some of the people on Unit 58 (in the neuro rehab unit at the Foothills Hospital). I'm getting better," Wedgerfield said. "Some of them are never ever going to. That keeps me going.
"I don't want to give up.
"I can't use my legs yet when I'm swimming because when I do, my back arches and it's extremely painful and my legs go dead. So I just use my arms. But I've gotten up to 40 kilometres on the bike, mostly with one leg because I can only push down on the right. I can't pull up.
"The running is coming along really well. I have to run, walk, sit, run, walk, sit because every once in a while the messages from the spine go awry and my legs will just go but then they come back.
"I just try and hold myself up on the walker more, and I've gotten up to seven kilometres.
"But I'm not trying to beat a world record. I just want to finish."
And it is this spirit that that has inspired fellow disabled athletes, like Peter Dawson, who has faced similar trials in his life.
“About a year-and-a-half ago, (Kim) started talking to me about triathlons,” Dawson said. “I used to race, but after I got hit, I thought I could never do anything like that again.
“She has touched a lot of people’s lives. More than she probably realizes.”
And this is very quality that makes Kim Wedgerfield this week’s Everyday Hero.
Update: Kim at the World Triathlon Championships
Kim Wedgerfield competed in the World Triathlon Championships in Hamburg, Germany on September 2nd, and won silver.
Her total time was 03:52:02, which was a new personal best for her.
"There were a couple of times I thought I might have to stop, but I just kept putting one foot in front of the other," said Wedgerfield. "When I came within a kilometre of the finish, the streets were packed with people and as I ran by, they called "Go Canada", cheered, sang, ran along side the course, and were so encouraging that I knew I'd get across that finish line."
Congratulations to Kim, and happy birthday as well - she turned 49 on the day she raced.
http://www.canada.com/globaltv/national/features/everyday_hero/story.html?id=76e5db97-e76e-4167-97d4-36507c4b2c0a
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