John Chernesky speaks to the crowd about how the Blusson Spinal Cord Centre has helped him.

In 1993, John Chernesky was catching a ride to Kelowna when the driver fell asleep at the wheel, resulting in a crash and leaving John a paraplegic.

“It was a pretty bad accident…a pretty tough time, but I’ve gotten past it,” he says with a smile. “You have to keep going.”

Aside from a pretty amazing attitude and support from family and friends, John has been able to keep going with the help of the Blusson Spinal Cord Centre, which celebrated its five-year anniversary on Tuesday where John spoke about the benefits the centre has brought him.

“It’s basically a one-stop shop for people with spinal injuries,” he says looking around at the centre’s atrium. “It brings all the aspects of recovery and research under one roof and for me it’s fantastic.”

Located on the Vancouver General Hospital grounds, the centre is home to ICORD as well as VCH’s Brenda & David McLean Integrated Spine Clinic and the Rick Hansen Institute offices.

Talented team

Before the Blusson Spinal Cord Centre, research in the area was fairly dispersed around the Lower Mainland, creating a disconnect between groups all working towards the same goals. ICORD director Dr. Wolfram Tetzlaff was part of that scattered group.

“We were all over the place, working at different institutions,” says Dr. Tetzlaff, who also spoke at the anniversary. “With the centre, we have been able to come together – have basic scientists working next to clinical scientists and thereby understanding each other’s problems much better…each other’s possibilities much better.

“As a result, we come up with more important questions and really going to the depth of what matters for people with spinal cord injuries,” he adds.

During its five years, the centre has done significant research in stem cells as well as how diet (like cutting sugars) and exercise benefit those with spinal cord injuries.

“The risk of cardiovascular disease for these people is three to four times as high as a person without a spinal cord injury,” says Dr. Tetzlaff.

Building muscle and community

Dr. Wolfram Tetzlaff steadies the wheelchair of Jocelyn Tomkinson, who MC’d the anniversary event.

Blusson recently opened the Physical Activity Research Centre (PARC), an accessible workout facility for the local spinal cord injury community.

“For me, it’s changed my world. If I had (the gym) 20 years ago, who knows how things would be now,” John says looking down at his legs. “It’s an amazing facility. It’s accessible, it’s welcoming, and there’s a sense of community.  Like, when you have mobility issues people are staring at you enough as it is in public life, but when you go in a normal, public gym, it’s compounded. Whereas here, we all have mobility issues, we can all use it, we can hang out and the equipment’s all accessible and it’s fantastic for us.”

John says it’s the people, the human contact, that keeps on bringing him back to the centre.

“You get to know other people with spinal cord injuries and it’s a supportive group – it’s a pretty cool place,” he says. “And as someone with a spinal cord injury, knowing what the latest developments are, knowing the latest techniques, it’s huge. Online, it’s such a wasteland of information. Here, I can talk to the researchers, I can talk to doctors and get an idea of what’s going on.”