Bradford West Gwillimbury Times - Memorable: A Run to Remember

Memorable: A Run to Remember

By Miriam King

In 2005, David McGuire suffered a stroke and fell, hitting his head. The result - from the stroke or from the fall - was a serious brain injury that affected his temporal lobe, the seat of memory, reasoning and emotion.

At the time, doctors warned his family that he might never be able to walk or talk again.

McGuire has come a long way since those days, both figuratively and literally. It was his journey to recovery that made him aware of the lack of support for families of the brain-injured, the lack of understanding on the part of the general public of his largely "invisible" disability, and the lack of awareness that acquired brain injury is common - and preventable.

Not only did McGuire re-learn how to walk, in 2009 he trained for and ran an Ironman marathon, and began working with BrainTrust Canada to plan a cross-country Run, to raise awareness that "brain injury is the greatest cause of death and disability under the age of 45."

He's in the midst of his "Run to Remember" now. He left St. John's, Newfoundland on April 1, and will run a marathon every day, to reach Victoria, B.C. some time in October.

The name of the Run is ironic, fitting McGuire's indomitable sense of humour: one long-lasting effect of his brain injury is loss of short-term memory.

His long-term memory is unimpaired - he can speak English, drive a car, and find his way around the town he grew up in - but his short-term memory is gone. He can run a marathon each day, meet and speak with an array of people, give interviews to the press and television - but when he wakes up the next morning, it's as if it never happened.

The good thing, McGuire says, is that he can watch reruns of his favorite TV show, and always laugh at the jokes - and he can tell and retell his story without getting bored.

And telling his story is part of the plan. "My goal is to do a marathon a day, but also to talk as much as I can," McGuire says, to make people, especially parents, aware of the dangers of brain injury, and the importance of helmet use to reduce the risk.

It used to be that in hockey, in football and other sports, "you take a hit to the head, and get back into the game... Now we're realizing the effects can cause long-term damage," he says. But for many people, helmets are just not cool. "We don't have a great understanding of the fragility of life."

McGuire understands. "Pre-injury, I was very creative, free-living... very emotional." Now, he's "much more practical, pragmatic. I don't care what the emotion is - let's solve the problem." That's because, in addition to short-term memory loss and aphasia, his injury has affected his ability to feel appropriate emotions, or respond to situations in an appropriate way. "I look normal, but I'm not normal," he admits.

The frustrations of his struggle to come back from brain injury led to depression, and anger, before he discovered running as an outlet. The first 2 years post-injury were all about recovery and rehabilitation - but when he tried to go back to school and into the workforce, depression hit. "Just trying to get back into society was so hard."

His wife Mandy understands. "You're mourning the loss of you," she says - because a person after brain injury is not the same person. "It affects so many people in so many different ways - you can't predict what the impact is going to be."

And there is little to prepare families of the brain-injured for their new reality. The hospital that treated McGuire in 2005 saved his life, patched him up - and sent him home. "We didn't even know what to do - we didn't know where to go," or what the challenges would be, she says.

On July 28, McGuire ran through Bradford, stopping in front of the court house to share his story, and talk about acquired brain injury. He planned to take Friday off, before getting back on the road to Barrie and beyond. And he will continue running because 175,000 people in Canada suffer brain injury every year - one person every 3 minutes; because the highest rates of traumatic injury are in males aged 16 to 24, and in children; and because, although life-saving techniques have improved, support services have not advanced at the same rate.

For more information, or to donate to Run to Remember, see www.runtoremember.com or www.braintrustcanada.com