Breathe

Let me ask you, when you look at me, what is it that you see? Do you see a creature that's barely alive? Or do you see a man that's escaped the confines of the hospital wards? Now, I have a machine under this very seat, and it breathes for me. And at home, I have a ventilator by my bed. I also have a remarkable group of friends. And most vitally I have my wife. But, as you see, I can do nothing for myself. And yet here I am. When I first became paralysed, I wanted to die. Yeah, I wanted to die, I did. But my wife wouldn't let me. She told me I had to live. To see our son grow up. So I went on living... because she told me to. Because of her, really. And with her. And for her. And every day since then, I've accepted the risk of dying because I don't want to just survive. I want to truly live. So, I implore you, you go back to your hospitals and you tell your disabled patients that they too can truly live. You all have this power to open the gates and set them free.