Conversations

He’s been a session player for greats like Frank Zappa and Chuck Berry but most remember him for his stints playing with the legendary Ronnie Hawkins Elephant Band in Toronto’s Nickelodeon.

To say that Jakob Kepka is a serious cyclist is far beyond an understatement. The above-knee amputee pedaled over 20,000 kilometres last year.

In a hospital delivery room giving birth to her third child, Joy Rodriguez wasn’t expecting to hear the words her husband calmly and lovingly whispered in her ear after their second son entered the world.

Tracy MacCharles, former Minister of Accessibility, knows disability well, personally and professionally, but didn’t know about living with an amputation. And so, her limb loss journey began.

Alan Rigby is a certified orthotist and prosthetist, a community leader, entrepreneur and co-owner of the St. Catharines-based PBO Group. It’s a business built on “best in class care."

Courtney Gilmour is a Canadian stand-up comedian whose performances include her experiences as a congenital triple amputee. JUNO nominated, she’s a television writer, finalist on Canada’s Got Talent, and a sought-after comedy talent.

June 9, 1994. A date that left an indelible mark on Craig Tourangeau’s mind and body. Twenty-odd years later he remembers every detail of that spring morning in Nanaimo like it was just yesterday.

The happily married, 56-year-old mother of three grown children is matter-of-fact about her missing limb. But it wasn’t always that way.

Four years ago, Christine Caron, a middle-aged Ottawa woman, saw life as she knew it shockingly transformed, but the monumental changes were not as tall as her towering spirit.

Aristotle Domingo looked at his life in 2017 and thought, “No, this can’t be it,” and then did something about it. “I was a new amputee then and I found myself sitting on the couch, out of shape.

Three-foot-tall Talli Osborne is never short on life experiences to share. From adoption to girl guides, performing in music halls, and managing the Punk Rock Museum, she's lived life through a lens uniquely her own.