Shay is an athlete, through and through. “Since day one, Shay has been a gritty kid, he’s a fighter, and makes no excuses. He’d fall and get right back up,” his mom shares. “We used to have a shirt that said, if you fall down 7 times, you get up 8. That reminds me of him.”
Sports have always been a part of Shay’s life. His mom describes, “During my masters studies before I had kids, I learned about the importance of neuro-networking in the brain from 0-6 years old and the importance of kids using their bodies. We did everything to ensure that Shay and his twin brother Ciaran could develop to their highest potential. Sports was a big piece of that.”
Because Shay lives with cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair, navigating the world is different than his peers, though he’s still very independent and involved in his community. Now 17, Shay plays wheelchair basketball for Team Ontario, and competes in wheelchair racing for Ontario, his favourite sport. “I’ve been in track, competing a lot longer than in wheelchair basketball, and at a higher level. It’s an individual sport which makes you more accountable for yourself,” he explains.
Shay describes that in wheelchair racing, athletes are sorted into a classification based on a general range of ability. Every disability with a spastic component that has some core control is put into the T34 category, the same category as Paralympic gold medalist, Shay’s idol, and Shine Alumni, Austin Smeenk.
Shay has big goals. “I want to be a Paralympian. I want to win a medal.” But in order to do so, he needed a customized chair fitted to Shay’s frame – a better-fitting chair than the one gifted to him from Austin. Thanks to the community of Shine donors and supporters this Spring, Shay received his very own Shine Dream of a custom racing chair. “Seating is an important part of wheelchair racing. It makes a significant difference to a race. It helps me be better and become what I want to be, a gold-medal winner!”
With his new wheels heating up the track, Shay has reached a personal best and is becoming more comfortable and confident. “He’s pushing himself more outside of his boundaries all of the time,” his mom shares. “He’s on such a perfect trajectory right now. He is building up his community of support and is finding his place. This is setting him up for so much success as he heads off to university this Fall.”
To the Shine community of donors who helped make Shay’s Dream come true: thank you. You didn’t just give him a racing chair, you became part of the team that’s helping reach his goals. Thank you for believing in Shay, not just as an athlete, but as a future Paralympian, a student, and a young man finding his own village.
