Tuesday, October 13, 2009

A Few Words from Brian


A GREAT article, Keeter Time, by Dave Pond is a featured story this month on ncsu.edu website. Please be sure to check it out.

Also, some of you may have received the below message from Brian in an email. We thought those not on his contact list might like to hear from him too so we've posted it below:

Hey Everybody!
I want again to thank everyone that has & continues to reach out to me following my accident. I continue to be amazed by the tremendous amount of support I receive from family & friends.

Unable to be proactive in my recovery has been very tough both mentally & physically. I am extremely excited that I have finally recovered from secondary issues that have prevented me from taking a very aggressive & proactive route in my recovery. I am ready to get started & confident that nobody will work harder then me at the therapies I am about to begin!

October is going to be a busy & exciting month. I will be moving about 25 miles or so north of Charlotte to be close to the Race to Walk therapy gym in Mooresville. At Race to Walk, I plan on building strength working with therapists & on my own 4-5 days a week. I hope to build up as much strength as I can & make as many gains as possible to maximize the time spent at my next stop at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta. The Shepherd Center has a wonderfully renowned outpatient therapy program, Beyond Therapy, which helps people with injuries like mine attempt to recover function. They have many success stories from people with injuries similar to mine. My father got me admitted & on the waiting list shortly after getting injured. He also toured the facility a few months ago. There was an eight month wait when I signed up & I anticipate beginning there in early 2010.

As most of you know, NC State has offered to help raise money to cover the tremendous out-of-pocket expenses associated with spinal cord injury therapy & recoveries that are not covered by insurance. I invite & encourage everyone to attend the Red Rally this Friday, October 16th. I definitely plan to come out in support of NC State family & hope also to see many of you there.

With the Red Rally coming up, I thought I should address one concern. Some people inquiring about donating to NTAF on my behalf have expressed some confusion regarding where the monies go. Just to be clear, approximately 98% of tax-deductible donations received in my honor go into my personal NTAF account to be used towards paying for progressive therapies such as Race to Walk & Shepherd Center, modifications to a vehicle so that I can begin driving again, & other vital expenses that insurance does not cover (The other 2% goes towards administrative costs & salaried patient fund coordinators.).

I appreciate everyone that has donated & please know that every little bit helps so much. I know times are tough for a lot of people but I cannot tell you how the small donations from many add up to be such a tremendous help to my family & me.

Again, I look forward to seeing you all at Reynolds Coliseum this Friday!

Sincerely,
Brian Keeter

As always, thank you so much to all the family, friends, & supporters who continue to encourage & assist Brian & our family through this! Please also be sure to check out Kermit's blog--he's been able to post some GREAT news as to how Brian is doing.

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