Okay, welcome to the AdaptX podcast where we have conversations with individuals who
are building accessible businesses, advocating for inclusion or excelling in adaptive sports.
Our intention is never to speak on behalf of those with disabilities, but provide a platform
to amplify their voices and share their ideas to a more accessible world. Today I'm joined by Jeff
Bowman and Mark Fuquerile. Fuquerile? Fuquerile? Yeah. Interviews are saying different last names
for you, pronouncing it differently. Two men who aren't defined by the events from 11 years ago,
but who you unfortunately might be familiar with from the Boston Marathon bombings. Both have
experienced incredible loss, but in this conversation I hope we can more so focus on what they've gained.
Preparing for this podcast was a challenge. Reading Jeff's memoir, interviews with Mark,
videos from the events of April 15th was not easy, but I hope I'm able to articulate my
thoughts and questions in a way that doesn't encroach on your privacy or evoke any negative
feelings. So Mark and Jeff, thanks for joining me today. For those who aren't familiar with who you
are, can you maybe lead us in with why you were at the Marathon in 2013 and what you remember from
that day? And then we'll transition into a discussion on adaptive sports and the role in recovery.
You want to go first? Yeah, I'll go first. Sure. They should pick you up. They should pick me up
wherever I am? Yeah. All right. So yeah, Mark Fuquerile, 11 years ago on April 15th, 2013,
a group of friends of mine, we all decided to go in to support a friend at the Marathon that day, who
was running. We made our way to in front of the foreign restaurant and the rest is pretty much
history. You know, the first bomb went off down by the finish line and 12 seconds later the second
bomb went off. Taking my right leg, it was quite an experience rolling around and, you know, talking
to different individuals that were assisting me like Kayla Quinn, Jimmy Davis, Shayna, you know,
and I got, I was lucky enough because there was no more ambulances. So I got put in a paddy wagon
that day with Jimmy Davis and a Boston firefighter, along with,
oh my God, Mike and... You got the paddy wagon ride. I got the paddy wagon. First class ambulance.
They, who did they end up in there with? The right leg above the knee, female. She married Mike.
Oh, Roseanne. Roseanne. Roseanne Sadoja. She's a single above knee. Yeah. And I can't believe I
was just drawing a blank. Unfortunately, you know, the blast did leave some of us with brain injuries
that kick in and on, turn on and off sometimes. I think sled hockey has helped mine out. So yeah,
that's what brought me to the marathon was to support a friend, right? That was Ron and one
to support him. So that was the key. And then everything else from there is history. I did do
45 days in Mass General, 55 days in Spalding, and another additional 10 days back in Spalding,
as well as 365 days at Walter Reed Medical Facility. So my recovery in and out of hospitals was just
over three years. That's great. Yeah. So I was at the first bomb that you mentioned. And yeah, it
was crazy. I was there watching my girlfriend at the time run her first marathon. She trained for
it. It was crazy. I know I wasn't really into the marathon. I was like, you're putting 26 miles.
That's crazy. You can see that. I'm not watching that. Like, I remember running like six miles
once and I was going to die. I was like, this is how can you run 26? You got to just push through
it, right? So I was pumped for her and I was with her friends. And we were in this thick crowd.
This weird dude bumped into me and he looked very weird because we were all having fun and
cheering. And like everyone was having fun with their, there was families, kids in strollers and
stuff. And he was alone. And he was like, had a heavy coat on, a backpack and his hat pulled
down low. And then I saw his bag on the ground and he was gone. And I was like, Oh, that's not good
in my head. And then I nudged my errands, the girl that I was watching, she was running, but I nudged
her friend. I was like, let's get out of here. Like that it's just something seems off. And she
was like, what are you talking about? Like two seconds later, boom, like went off and you saw a
flash of white and I was on the ground. I opened up my eyes and I was like, I was concussed, obviously.
And my ears were blown out. And I was like, why are they shooting fireworks? I was all mad because
they shot fireworks off into the crowd. That's what I thought. Then I looked up and I was like,
Whoa, I was like, this is big time looking around. I didn't even notice my legs yet. And as soon as I
saw my legs, I went into like tunnel vision and it was horrible. Just your life slows down to like
a seconds, you know, one second equaled like one year it felt like. And I'm thinking about everything.
I'm like, I'm, you know, I'm not going to run. I'm not going to skate. I can't play hockey anymore.
I can't do this. I'm like, Oh, I'm starting to look around a little bit. People are starting to
jump over me. Oh, I'm probably going to die here. Like this is it. It's my injuries are horrible.
Like my legs were someone grabbed me and pulled me out of like a pile of blood and my legs stayed
there. And I was like, Oh no. And luckily people started to run in and help us. Like Mark said, and
brave people, because I did hear the second bomb go off, but that felt like, you know, an hour later,
it was only what 20 seconds or so 12, 12 seconds. Yeah. So it felt like an hour. Like it did. It
felt like 30 minutes later. And then I was, I was actually looking up to looking up, looking up.
I thought we were being bombed. No, I thought we were being bombed. And I was like, Oh wow.
And then people started to help. And luckily a guy with a cowboy had jumped in and, you know,
tied a tourniquet around my right leg and I grabbed my left and I'm a volunteer. She was
brave enough to run in with a wheelchair and got me out of there. And I, I didn't go in a
paddy wagon. I went into an ambulance. I'm high class. So yeah, it's gonna care.
Yeah. They, when they triaged the situation, I lost, my leg was gone instantly through my knee.
Yeah. I was heavily burnt. I was fired three different times. Yeah. We were all
toast. We were extra crispy. Yeah. You know, the nurse helped me. She put the tourniquet on and
she was like, Oh shit, he's still on fire. And, uh, that's when I grabbed my shoes. We've got to
get his pants off. I need scissors. She was screaming for scissors. So I panic and I undid
my own belt to help get my pants off. What was left of my pants. So in the paddy wagon or the
hospital? No, I was laying on the sidewalk for quite a while. Yeah. They backboarded me to put
me on a backboard and then they were just waiting and trying to, they were screaming, stop, stop to
ambulances. Nothing was stopping. And they were talking to me. And just like you said, it felt
like I was right. Like, yeah, I just want to see my son. I just want to get home. I just want to
go home. I just want to see my son. You know, and that's all I kept repeating and saying, and
they were asking me my name and like, you know, like Jeff said, it definitely, you were, we were
both severely concussed my eardrums as well as his, I had to, you know, cut my hair, peel it back,
put the new air drum on and use a skin graft from your armpit, you know, because it's this soft,
thin skin that they use and stretch it back over. Yeah. I'm scared to do that surgery. Yeah. I,
I tell you that recovery from that surgery, I felt was worse than the five amputations that I did.
Oh, geez. Now he's definitely not going to get it. But yeah. So, you know, me and Jeff both feel
the same way about people that day, like two evil people did an evil thing. Yeah. But when you look
back at the pictures I do, I know, I know Jeff doesn't like to as much as I do, but I love to
see where I came from being on that sidewalk. And what I also love to look at is all the brave men
and women that ran to help people that they didn't know. Yeah. That was, that is what motivates and
drives me. And then the days and year to come and the support that we still receive to this day,
all the time, there's a true blessing. And, you know, those, those, those are what I like to
focus on after everything, you know, is, is, is that complete strangers across this world,
helped us and supported us if it was a gift, if it was financially, or if it was just words of
kindness and acts of kindness. So yeah, it was, you know, I think me and Jeff both, you know,
we, we get it. Oh yeah. You know, we, and we both, you know, feel the same about a lot of things to
do with the marathon and the people like, you know, a lot of veterans too, cause we kind of get a
piece of what they, the ones that got wounded, you know, we got a little piece of what they go
through and they have been very supportive to us. Oh, they are. I mean, like you said, you got,
you were at Walter Reeve for awhile. I get to play on, you know, their sled hockey teams and they
simplify was right there in our hospital rooms. Yeah. And we said, oh yeah, right. Immediately
meeting after Friday. God, well, I didn't wake up. I'm really until Friday. You know, these are
people, these guys are, you know, recently just got blown apart like us, but they're walking around
already and up and, and coming in like yelling at us in our faces. Remember you mentioned that in
the book that when you saw two double above knee, that was one of the times where you're like, all
right, maybe I can get back to this. It's very, you know, you see it, see a move and you're like,
oh man, they're living life. They're doing it. Yeah. Did you wish that picture of you and Carlos
didn't exist or didn't gain the same virality? No, now that I look back, I think it's a good thing,
you know, just to see like, it's, you know, it shows what happened. You can't really deny,
I don't want to like censor it. It happened. Yeah. At the time though, it seems weird to me that
everything's going off and someone had the wherewithal to start taking pictures. So I actually
have spoke with one of the photographers and he caught a lot of heat for it, you know, but even my
nurse tried to help Lindsay Lue, but there was so many people trying to help. She couldn't get into
help. She stepped back over me thinking I had already passed, but I was just unconscious because
I was in and out of consciousness, but I tried to sit back up and she was like, oh my God, let me
help. Let me help him, you know, but it just shows the photographer said, I'm not trained to help
people. What I'm trained to do is take pictures and document this as its history. And I was like,
you know what? I appreciate it because it's also evidence. It's a lot of things that he could have
caught. And it was able to allow me to see the individuals and people that really rushed in to
help. So he did catch a lot of heat and a lot of people feel have mixed feelings on that. And I
think it just, you know, reverts back to your training and your job, right? The nurses that
were there off duty, they jumped it. Yeah, they did. Nurses are the best. I mean, you mentioned
in your book that you don't consider yourself to be brave. You're kind of like thrown into this
situation as a whole. And then you kind of became the face of the Boston Strong Movement. Was there
added pressure from that? Did you ever feel like undue pressure from kind of being the face behind
it? At the time, I really didn't feel a lot of pressure. It was more of like a lot of support.
That's what it felt like, a lot of support. And also, like, I didn't want to let anybody down.
So that was in my mind, like, I'm going to let people down. Yeah. So that's to a degree pressure,
I guess. Yeah. It's some obligation to the people that are supporting you. It is more like an
obligation, but it's also a blessing that so many people support you. You know? Yeah. I mean,
you're a few Dread Talks fans. So like the Ortiz speeches and stuff, like, did that motivate you?
I know you kind of had the contrast in the book. Yeah. I mean, with the contrast stuff, that was
just more like the ghost writers. And also with the movie with like Jake and Jake Johnall and all
the directors, like David Gordon Green, they had to figure out a way to make it entertainment.
And they said that to me. And it's like, I get that. Same with the book. It's like, they have to
make sure it's entertainment for the people that want to buy it to make money. It's like my chance
to make some money. And I took that opportunity. I didn't want to at first. My dad and my mom
really talked me into it. Because you're like, you don't really have anything like, you're not
a college graduate at this time. And like, I don't see it. You don't want to go back and work in the
chicken room and the deli and Costco and stock, you know, crates all day. I don't think you can
do that anymore. And I'm like, I think I could do it. But I just had an opportunity with the
book and the movie and I took it in. That was really just like the Boston Strong thing. We kind
of all use it as like an opportunity to get our names out there, which was cool. It was really
glad. Yeah, 100%. I mean, I think you definitely should have done it. Well, thank you. I know you're
I know you were saying that for since day one. Yeah, I've been bothered about, you know, everybody
asked me to write a book. Like, why, you know, my story pretty much is the same as what Jeff's like,
went through the same stuff, the challenges, the stories out there. But I love it because that book
became a movie that movie became something that people will remember. Right. It's it's that never
forget. And it's not really about don't forget what happened to me. Don't forget about what
people did. I mean, there was a lot, a lot of generosity and kindness that came out of what it
came out. Yeah, that was the craziest. I didn't get that. Like I remember I had to clean out one
of my rooms that I had to put stuff in that I got sent. Like people would just send me stuff from all
over the world. And it's like blankets and blankets, hats, everything. And it's like,
I'm talking like a full room up to the ceiling of this stuff. And it's like I had to go through it.
Like it took me months to go through it. And this is like five years later. Like this is crazy. It's
like the support is nuts. And like, it that just boggles my mind. Because you I mean, we see this
stuff happen kind of like all over the world. And I you feel bad, obviously, when you see stuff
horrible happen, true traumatizing events, and people go through war, like war zones, and it's,
you feel bad for those people. And I couldn't imagine like setting my time out and actually
like making a quote for somebody and sending it to somebody. You know, it's like the nicest thing.
We in in a big thing is like, I'm glad you did the movie in the book, because
it really shows people your life can change in the blink of an eye. Oh, yeah. So don't take it for
granted. Yeah, don't take the opportunities you have right now for granted, because they might not
be here tomorrow. Absolutely. And that and that's, I'm just I'm just no one else has done it really.
Like, I mean, Rosanne wrote the book, right? I mean, but nobody else Mark Wahlberg did the movie.
But that was more about the chase. Like, Oh, yeah, your life that changed. And now that that book is
there. Like, I don't know how many times over the last 11 years that I've told people they've had a
watch stronger, you have to watch like, I watched the movie. I'm like, what one now like Mark Wahlberg,
I'm like, yeah, great movie. But Jeff Bowman's movies the best. Oh, yeah, I seen that strong.
Yeah. I'm like, that's a better, better movie. You know, and I mean, don't get me wrong, Patriot's
Day Mark Wahlberg movie. Great. Phenomenal. Like, I like it, because again, it's that piece of
history that will go away that people will remember because there were a lot of police
offices, FBI agents and people that put their time in, you know, to to do what they did on their end,
you know, are there any ways that your lives are better after the incident?
Oh, yeah, in certain ways, like I have, I have, I have a daughter now. That's way better. That's
like, she's awesome. And she's nine now. And that's I was really scared when I found out that I was
like, just freshly like a year into my amputation, or like getting blown up. And it's like, Oh, I'm
gonna have a daughter. I was like, no way. Like, I'm not gonna be able to do anything with her.
Like, that was my whole mindset. Like, I'm gonna be what am I just gonna sit here and watch her
like live and, you know, watch her run and do things. But that's totally just not the case.
That's another thing I was just like fearful of. And yeah, it's I mean, I can't say I probably
would not have a child right now. If I didn't go through all this. I mean, same, like I feel, you
know, it's how we choose to look at it. Right? I think, you know, my life was great, you know,
before the bombing, but I think it, you know, definitely got better in a lot of different ways,
introduced me to a lot of different great people, definitely changed my perspective on life a little
bit for the better. And yeah, I would never met my now wife, Nicole Browder, right? So she's a
quote, born quadruple amputee. And I got to meet I mentor kids with Mr. Lim's and Lim differences
through different charitable organizations. And it really just shows me and appreciate it makes me
appreciate life more, you know. And also, I thought I believed I could do anything. But now, seeing
what Jeff does and what I do on a regular basis every day, and I've done eight full marathons on
a hand bike, and 26.2 miles is legit crazy. Like Jeff said, every time I start out, I'm like, what,
what am I doing? Why am I doing this? This is pure punishment. But every time I completed, I'm like,
Oh, wow, that was easy. And it shows you in life as long as you don't stop, and you just keep going
and you don't quit, you eventually will get to finish in your goal or whatever it is. And I don't
know, it's it's definitely, definitely taught me a lot of great and amazing things.
Or the hand bike, it's a little bit easier than running it. Hey, hey, hey, you've done it.
You've done it. I think you can you could probably walk it. I think you could. I don't know, I,
I bet you could. Yeah, it's, you know, so Mark, he did like the hand cycling, but I started sled
hockey. And he tried it. And we needed a goalie like a couple of years ago. And I was like, Mark,
you got to come, come, come play. He's like, I got my shoulders are so bad. I can't skate. I can't
skate out. I'm like, oh, you can play goalie for us. And stand there and get pummeled. We won the
league championship. I was the number one goalie. Yeah, he's the number one goalie. Awesome. My
rookie. Yeah, it was really good. Did those resources exist? For you guys, like you said
that you mentor kids with limb loss. Were there people for there for you 11 years ago saying like,
this is what you can do? Like, what, how has it evolved over the last 11 years, I guess,
in terms of like resources? Well, I mean, back then, I had two charities that really helped me
that were Wiggle Your Toes in Minnesota with Aaron Holm. He's a double above the knee amputee. He's
awesome. Wiggle Your Toes is great. And then 50 legs down in Florida with Steve Chamberlain. He's
from Draykid, actually. He was in a motorcycle accident, lost his leg below the knee. And he's
got a cool they got awesome connections. But Steve's got connections down in Florida with like
Hulk Hogan and stuff. They're like ex wrestlers. You should see him. He's like 6'3". He's got to
go to his full dude. He just raised like a half a million dollars. Yeah, half a million. I gave him
my bib for the marathon. The BAA lets us have like a bib every year. And some and now that you
mentioned it, like MRA, awesome organization, charity organization and Heather Abbott's Heather
Abbott Foundation is is amazing. And they raise a lot of money and Heather's organization helps
amputees to all over the world. So JP and Paul, they got the leg forever foundation now. Yeah,
so the two brothers that I was standing with. So out of my group, those three of us that lost our
legs, all three lost our right leg. JP's are below the knee, Paul's above the knee, and I'm above the
knee amputee. Their mom started a foundation called the leg forever. And they give back to amputees
that lose a leg to a traumatic accident or injury. And they help bedside care as well. And they do
an amazing job just like the Heather Abbott Martin Richard Foundation and you know, the 50 legs.
And then you just started your foundations. Yeah, I just launched in January the remarkable
foundation, which we help people mobility is disabilities, as well as their caretakers in
other nonprofit organizations with supplying adaptive equipment. Yeah, let's talk about the
Mark network a little bit as well. So that's gonna be a great resource. Yeah, so you talk about those
resources in nonprofits that helped us, you know, I feel that the publicity around our event, right,
I mean, ESPN reached out to me, I did two, three ESPN E 60s that they did on me. And Jeff has the
book in the movie. Most people don't have these organizations like 50 legs or, you know, camp no
limits or other organizations like Achilles, Semper Fi, America's fun reaching out to them like we did.
So navigating that system of support, events and organizations is very difficult. I learned
that by engaging with families like a grand estate adaptive sports with kids with autism,
and kids with spinal cord injuries. Talking to their families was the same difficulties as
amputee families, and people with Parkinson's and MS, I found out they struggle with resources and
awareness to nonprofit organizations like where do you play sled hockey in central Massachusetts,
right? It's very difficult to find because they're very small marketing budgets. So I created the
Mark network mobility awareness resource community we just launched to I just launched that business
at the same time as my nonprofit. It's Mar C network. It's free. It's an Apple and Google
stores to download. It's for loved ones and for individuals and for the community that services
people with disabilities to engage in conversation and share information in products that they love
and that they use. So it could help speed up the recovery of an individual getting that new diagnosis.
Right? This 300 to 500 scheduled limitations every day in the US. That's 300 to 500 families
that wake up needing help. And they usually don't get it because they weren't blown up at the Boston
Marathon. They don't have the publicity in the media coverage that we did. So yeah, that's what
I launched in. You know, like I said, you know, you were asking about, you know, finding these
programs and support and adaptive. It's very difficult, still very difficult. We just found
out about your adaptive gym down here in Lancaster. That's like, that's amazing. Like didn't even know
this exists here. Right? It's an amazing job. Yeah, I wish I guess I wish I was in over near me and
maybe we'll have to open a second. Okay. You enact them to get it. Yeah. I'll run it into the ground.
Yeah, that's awesome. So the network, the Mark network, is it ideally for, do you want businesses
to upload information about them? Do you want individuals who find these resources to review
them to a degree? Like who's the target consumer? All of it. I mean, we want them to do all of it.
Right. So it's an opportunity. It's a direct marketing platform. Right. So it's an opportunity
for providers like wheelchair providers, prosthetic providers, physical and occupational therapists
to engage with their community. Right. And figure out how to service them better,
but also just bring awareness to where they are. Right. Like I'm an amputee, Jeff's a double amputee.
We weren't aware of where you are. Right. So when we build a community, we have a focused group
right there to talk to and chat with and engage with and show your new products, your new workouts,
your new gym equipment in your new location. So it's pretty much for everybody. We are definitely
looking for sponsors and support. We, you know, we run, we do, we're doing all seven abilities
expos across this country. We just did LA in February. We did Dallas in last November, LA.
I just got back from New Jersey Sunday night from doing the abilities expo down there. We did the
Boston outdoor expo to show inclusivity with, you know, people with disabilities, because
people with disabilities can get outside just like a mountain biker. We can still partake right next
to you. You go skiing. Me and Jeff both ski in a mono ski. We just want, I want to show people
that there's hope early in their recovery. Like Jeff said, we were blessed because Semper Fi
actually ran that race. There were amputees that ran that race. It had already been finished. They
were back at their hotel rooms, saw the bombs go off and wanted to rush back down there. And they
were in our hospital rooms through the system that they navigated to be there to show our family
support. I want my app, it's a free app to be in every hospital in every newly amputated person's
hand day one to show them that they literally can do anything. And this is how you do it with
what organizations we have a geo map location. We have everything. This thing is state of the art,
top notch community platform. That's amazing. Um, but like I said, it gives you everybody I go
and visit, I don't know about you, Jeff, but they feel alone, right? When they just wake up and now
they're missing a leg or they're now paralyzed. Like they feel by themselves. They don't think
they're ever going to be able to do nothing. That was my mentality. I didn't know. And now I do more
than most able-bodied friends of mine. Um, and I do it all with my family, just like Jeff, Jeff
skis with his daughter, he plays hockey with his daughter. I mean, nothing holds us. There is no,
there is, there isn't anything you can't do. And I want to change that attitude early in someone's
recovery. When they get that diagnosis, I want them to know they need to work hard at physical
and occupational therapy. That's where it all starts. Day one. We're grateful for the support
of our first show sponsor. Resolution Fitness offers leading brand health club equipment and
accessories for residential and commercial use. In addition to traditional exercise equipment,
they specialize in adaptive fitness products and wheelchair accessible machines. If you're interested
in outfitting your fitness facility or home gym to be more accessible, visit www.resolutionfitness.ca
or the link in the show notes below. What's the role of adaptive sports and recovering from
something like this? Oh, let's tell them about Jimmy. Who? James. Oh, James. Jimmy. All right.
Yeah. We have a, we have a good friend. He's probably not going to let us, he's going to
listen and then I'll tell him what's happening. He's a vet. And, um, I don't want to tell a story
too much, but he was in the army, he was in a cavalry unit. So we drove like Bradley's, the
trucks, he was a driver, but he had to raid a house and he got, and he, and he got shot by all
like six, probably four or five times, I think. And he had a rough recovery and he went into,
you know, a dark place for a while. And, uh, he's found sled hockey and he started to play up in
Maine. He had to go up there with the, uh, the Maine warriors up in Maine. Uh, and he played with
them. And then I started, we started to play against them and I got to know, like them and
talk to them. And then he jumped onto our team and now we're good friends with them. And, uh,
so what he says is like, you know, I, I really didn't connect with anybody. And even down at
Walter Reed, he was at Walter Reed for a while. I think everyone's in their kind of own little
world down there and their bubble sometimes. And, and when you get out, you get like thrown back out
into the world. It's probably totally different than what they're used to, but he found like a
camaraderie with sled hockey and adaptive sports because there are a ton of vets that play and
there are a ton of, you know, everybody has basically a disability. And he just came out
of a shell and he like, he's wicked thankful for it. And he, and he's like, he interacts,
I guess he did. He just like sat at home and didn't do much. And now he's like, goes out and
we travel all the time now for sled hockey and going out. So like, just like something like that,
just getting people out of their, their comfort zone, their bubble, you know, their darkness.
And then it gets you into no competing again. And that for me, it's the competition. I would
never think I would just go and be able to like, you know, watch Mark fight somebody on the ice.
And which has happened is James fought somebody, James fought Troy. I only throw their sticks at
each other. If you've ever seen a sled hockey stick, they have a spike at the end. Throwing
them like spears at each other. Like every team needs an enforcer. Yeah, exactly. I, to my defense,
I defended myself on the ice. I didn't fight on the ice. I was being punched in the back of the
head. So tied up on the skate, stuck there. I asked him nicely to stop. He didn't, but he kind of just
put them in a reverse chokehold. Little lie. It's hard to do what you gotta do. No, but adaptive
sports definitely is huge in the recovery. Right? I mean, look at our U S Olympic team, you know,
the sled hockey team and the basketball, wheelchair basketball team and diving and swimming and track
and field. It's just, it's an opportunity for these kids to inspire, to be these athletes.
It's growing. And that's what the Mark network wants to be about too. I want to bring awareness
to the mobility community because, and I want to live stream it to where everybody can see it.
And these young children can inspire to be these athletes because like, if you don't,
you know, know what's out there and can't, you know, so a lot of people just can't do it
right until they see it. And I know with me, you know, Jeff had to do some convincing to get me
to play, but once I played it's, you get a hooked and I love it. But my, unfortunately my schedule
traveling and doing what I'm doing messes that up a little bit, but I always try to work it in.
You know, I say I'm done right now, but when season gets going, I'll probably be there back
up. Holy that's springfield. He jumped out on defense cause he played like he, like me,
we played hockey growing up. So we jump out on the ice and it starts to click again. And it,
you know, it might look different. Like you're sitting down, you're in a sled,
but it's still the ice and you still have these blades and you, you gotta cut, I mean, you gotta
get into your turns. You gotta lean in. It's all core to lean into your turns. It's a, it's a beast
sport. And it's just like any other, Oh yeah. It's super physical. Just like probably any other
sport. Skiing is I skied a little bit growing up. I grew up skiing. Yeah. So I, I, my girlfriend
loves skiing and my daughter loves skiing, but I hate it. I like, I love sled hockey. I'll go out
there and battle all day, play it all night. You can put me on the ice, but you throw me up on a
black diamond. I'll cry. Like I'm like, I'm going down this ice. I scream. I look for the, I look
for them. I'm a decent skier. Like I can skate. Yeah, I can ski and you can ski it's, but you
got like some people love it. I'm like, all right, if I go down a black diamond, I'm swearing at
people. Yeah. I love it. You took me down a black diamond. I, when, when you hit the slopes, when I,
I actually kind of skied before I walked. Uh, and it was the first time I felt freedom in months.
I literally felt like I was standing and skiing down that hill and in Breckenridge, Colorado is
where I first learned how to ski. That high up to like losing your legs and then just being that
high up in the elevation and into the mountains. It's like, it's something else. It's like,
cause you like, I'm like, I've heights, but I can do like a three, like maybe a 2000 or 3000 hill,
you know, a little hill. I can't do the 4,000 footers. Like I used, maybe I could, it would
take me like two days. I'd have to camp, but being up on the mountain, like up on top of like cannon,
like you're like, it's, it's inspiring and it's, it's awesome. And the best is when you're going
down, it's just, there's no restriction. Like it's hard for us, like as amputees with these legs to
like walk, it's literally physically challenging, but that freedom of momentum just going down the
hill and then being on the ice. Yeah, it's on the ice too. But it's hard to push it's,
but when you're glad and that's fun, it's fun. We don't get hit.
Yeah. Punched in the head and punched in that head.
Do you think introducing people without a disability to adaptive sports like sled hockey would
be like, I don't know, make it more popular or do you think people? I think it would. We do,
we play with a lot of able-bodied people in our, in our league and they love it. I wish I...
It's a different sport. A lot of my friends want to try it is like that I grew up with, like,
oh, let me get, let me on there. It's just, it's tough kind of lining. That's our problem is like
lining up ice time with sleds and equipment. I know, like I played for Spalding, they had a van and
they were good at getting equipment that you needed, but that's like the hardest part. Because I mean,
we have funding. See, he doesn't, I don't even think he has a sled mark and he's played for like
three years. Yeah, because it's just cost, financial cost. You stole David Eustis. He stole...
So David Eustis is now a one-time gold medal Olympian, right? He's one of the best in the
world. Best in the world. He's an amazing sled hockey player and he grew up around, he's a single
above the knee amputee and he's a young kid. He's probably 24, 25. 20, probably 22. 22, yeah. Yeah.
So Jack Wallace is a little older than him. So David Eustis grew up in my hometown. So he's
younger than me. He's like half my age. Mark knew his, knows his dad. I know his dad really well.
And I knew his dad only because my brother knew his dad, because my brother was a police officer
and his dad worked for National Grid and the details. And then my sister-in-law bought the
dance studio in our town and his younger sister danced there with my sister-in-law. And my brother
in the police offices always supported David Eustis to go to Camp No Limits because David was coming
out of school with his mom and his sister and he was five years old. And in actual below the knee
amputee, his foot got stuck on the gas pedal and he drove to the crowd and pinned him against the
wall. They took his, I want to say his left leg and his right leg, salvaged limb. The mom was injured
and the sister also was severely injured, all three of them. But they all luckily lived. And David Eustis
found Camp No Limits and Camp No Limits introduced him to sled hockey at seven and changed his life.
And I was blessed enough to be able to support them and know them. And then this happened to me
and David's dad reached out to my brother and as a family, they really supported me and we became
really good friends. I helped him fundraise with foot camp with him. What he does is amazing. Paul
Eustis. And yeah, so I was just blessed. And I just last year got David's dad's like,
Hey, I got a couple of sleds you can piece together. It was a Frankenstein sled.
These guys, like we're decent players, but like they've been playing since they were
for like 20 years and they're 22. They've been playing growing up and they just crush their
equipment. Like this is steel welded things that they're ripping apart and that's how violent they
are. But that's how lucky we are. So like David will come out when he's around and show me tricks
and show me moves, like things on the ice that I'm just trying to get better at as an older guy.
And I'm like, yeah, and he's a phenomenal kid. And that's really, that's an amazing thing to
have that support. And Kyle Zich the same way, he'll come out with us and show us moves, but
also you have able-bodied people. This happened in La Crosse last year. I play up at NEP,
Northeast Passage, a wheelchair La Crosse and teams bring pros, La Crosse pros out.
And then you could have two able-bodied people on your team. And we're like, we had a good,
one of the coaches son, Sam, he's awesome and high school player. We had him and then we had a,
we were trying to get this pro to play with us and you know, their hands are nasty.
It's just, they can't maneuver in the chairs that well. You give them a couple practices. Like my
daughter, nine, she liked playing in the chairs. Like we'd have to be like, all right, somebody
needs the chair, Nora, you know, get out of the chair. She'd be like, come on, dad. And I'm like,
come on. And she would actually be out in the, in the practices and like some of our good faster
players like Timo, uh, Donnie, he's the George, the Marine that he was a Georgia Marine that got
blown up. The one I crashed into in hockey and he almost actually he broke my ribs. Yeah.
Just sitting still and I hit him. He'd be like buzzing. I keep going at Nora and looking,
he's like, Oh, I don't want to run into her. I'm like, Nora, you gotta get out of the chair.
But it's, it's interesting to depict adaptive sports is not, not less, but just different.
It's not like a lesser athletic endeavor. It's just a different, it's just different.
And it's almost like it could be more because running is so natural. Yeah. Oh,
wheelchair, wheelchair rugby is insane. If you watch wheelchair, it's a,
my body's been beaten. I could barely survive sled hockey. Yeah. And that's the thing too. Like
with sled hockey, it's not only do you have to have quick hands, but you also got to have
the strength to push yourself as well as the core to stay upright. And then now, so you're trying to
push a chair and use, and you got to carry your stick and then there's it's full contact. So
people are like, you know, pushing you, like people throw you, if you're off balance, people
pushing your chair over and then it's like, no one's helping you get out. You got to either get
out of your chair. The refs will sometimes come over and like give you a little hand, but you got
to get your chair up. And it's like, it's all things you have to learn. And it's, it's a,
it's a different adding the equipment that we need to use to sports is a whole nother element
that able-bodied people don't have to do. Yeah. The wheelchairs are pricey and they get beat.
It's same with your sled. Your sled's pricey. There's only like one kind of vendor that makes
them up in Canada unique. And they get beat, they get beat up. Like my sled looks like it's been
thrown through like a war zone. Like it's got chips and it's metal. It's, it's, I mean,
you mentioned in your book, your prosthetics were what? $100,000. Yeah. So it's like,
microprocessor needed for monobox. How can, how can you make assistive tech and adaptive equipment
more financially accessible? Well, anybody and everybody listening, we know right now,
financially, all the challenges that we're facing. Right. So imagine being a husband and a wife
or a couple that's together married and you're making $150,000 a year trying to live in the,
you know, state of Massachusetts and you have two kids now add a disability into that wheelchairs.
My wheelchair was $17,500. My sled would be roughly five to seven grand with sticks
because you had to have two sets of sticks. You got to have your sled. You got to have your
shoulder pads, your helmet. You're talking close to five to seven grand to get involved.
Wait, actually like the normal stuff that you get, like the shoulder or the cheapest stuff,
like the helmets, the, as, as well as, you know, you get into these sports wheelchairs at three,
you know, three, four, five, six, up to 10 grand. I know my hand cycle was like 75, 85,
800. It's crazy. So nice. But it's the only way you can participate. So it's, it's, it's kind of
crazy. So, you know, we rely on a lot of organizations, unfortunately, like they don't
always cover everything and you can't find enough of them, but there's such a need that, you know,
they can't buy every one of them, you know, so it's, there's a lot that goes involved. It's
expensive, very expensive. It's just, that's the challenge, right? I mean, you know how hard it is
already. And then, you know, like, I think from toe to hip, it's close to like 170,000 that they
bill insurance and then you pay 20%. Is your foundation geared towards supporting people that
need financial support and getting them? So, the Remarkable Foundation, our goal is to be
our goal is to be very diverse in who we assist and help. I kind of left that way intentionally.
So if I see a need, I can help. But my real true passion is finding great organizations that need
that one piece or two pieces of equipment to really propel their organization into helping
somebody. Because if I supplied a sled, say for $5,000, all the equipment for someone to play
sled hockey, but they could keep that there and it could be a different person could use it every day.
Right. So it could be a different person every day for five days. Right. So that's five people
a week times 52 people a year, you know, 52 weeks in a year. So it'd be five times 52. So I'd be
helping that amount of people verse just giving one person a sled, right. That can go. So there's
a balance and you got to pick and choose. I'm looking to do both. I'm looking to help individuals
as well as teams so they can have people in and out rotate through. Yeah. I'm hoping the
representation that comes from the Paralympics being more publicized will help as well. Because
I mean, the price point so high because it's so customized, right. It's not really mass produced.
So they can't really get the cost of it down. But if the popularity of it increases, you see now,
like with push from wheelchair racers getting sponsors now that they're competing for prize
purses and the major marathons and stuff like, oh, that's cool. As the sports become more popular,
then you can begin to monetize like your athletic career in the same way that someone else would be
able to. And then you can start to make it more accessible financially. That's the goal of the
Mark network. There you go. That's the goal. Let's make it. You know, and if we can organize these,
you know, because I've been involved so many, I see the lack of organization in groups to grow
these sports. I see the potential. I'm a promoter. That's what I did. I manage musicians and DJs and
nightclubs and I promoted events, right. And their marketing budgets are really non-existent. So
in just what you said, if, you know, there's a hundred thousand people playing,
it's a limited market. Once we grow awareness to this and there's a million people playing,
it's a bigger market. And now you can drop the prices because a, it'll also bring in competitors
in the market to compete against these individuals to draw down the price too. So that's, that's a
goal. Um, big goal of mine. I want to own the exclusive airing rights at the highest level for
mobility impaired sports. And I want to sell that advertisement on that streaming so I can pay the
coaches, pay the leagues, pay the players. That's my dream. I look forward to that dream coming to
fruition for sure. Um, with you both having kids, I have two boys under two years old as well. So
it's something that I'm interested in is how I can get them to grow up and, uh, see disability
as just like a natural part of the human existence, or at least be more empathetic and kind based on
just being around it, being exposed to it. I think shared recreation and shared interests is one
great way of, uh, just kind of normalizing disability inclusion for sure. But how do you
think your disabilities have affected your kids upbringing in a positive way? I think my daughter
is, she's got a really great personality and with dealing with me, especially on a day, on a daily
basis. And like, like you said, like she's around it all the time, right? She's exposed to, to me
all the time. And so she sees something else. She's very like, uh, not like any other, like there's a
lot of kids that like the stare or like with me, they'll be like, dad, dad, robot legs. Like, oh,
yeah. They're like, the dads are more, you know, the parents are mortified. Oh, I'm so sorry. And
I'm like, no, it's okay. And they're like, can I touch it? Yeah. I touched the legs. Um, and it's
great. Like that alone is great because they're like, now they're interested in their start.
They're like, they start asking questions like then like what happened? I'm like, ah, you know,
like I was in like an accident. You got to play it with the parents. I was going on with Nora's, uh,
her hockey team, her learned to skate, learned to play hockey. And I would go out there in my sled.
And after like three practices, everyone was cool. And I was like, but the first couple times,
you know, I get kids, it's like, you know, they're just staring at me and the still like,
how does that work? You know, there's very, a lot of kids. Yeah. It's curiosity. That's it.
And the parents often squash it by saying like, oh, don't, don't look, don't talk. Like don't
interact with that person. Yeah. You get it. So parents to do that. And I think that's like
horrible to be like, no, no, no, don't look. Yeah. It's well intentioned, but it is not. It's just,
like, let them go. And for me, it's like, yeah, I'll answer any question up to the point where
they're like, what happened to your legs? They just want to know what happened. And then it's like,
is this an accident? What type of accident? They're smart. The kids are like eight and nine.
They're really smart. They're like, there's something happening. You want to know what happened.
They want to know. That's all there. They're curious. Yeah. My, my son was five when I lost
my leg. When I got blown up, I was everything to my son. Me and him were together every day,
you know, all day. I was his hockey coach, his learning to skate coach as an able body. So then
all of a sudden dropped him off at daycare and didn't come home for a while. He wasn't able to
see me for two weeks. And then he came in and saw me and now he's 16. And my son volunteers and he
mentors siblings of amputees and brothers, you know, brothers of amputees, sisters of amputees.
He's really involved. He gets it. He understands. He can relate. He knows the challenges. He's been
with me this whole journey. So yeah, his whole mindset is like, you don't know what people
are facing and challenges at home or because, you know, my son struggles with mine and his
relationship sometimes because of my lack of patience due to my brain injuries, as well as my
temper, because of the pain or whatever I'm in and the difficulty for me to do something, I get
frustrated. So my son is very sympathetic in the understanding that, you know, there's a kid at
school acting out. Well, he's acting out because his sister's autistic and mommy and daddy don't
pay attention to him as an able-bodied kid and a kid without a disability as much as they pay
attention to their other child. So my son, I think honestly, as much as this has hurt
our relationship as a family, it also has helped, but it's also helped him as a, become a man
and a better person and understanding challenges people face. So yeah, it's, I don't know. It's,
I think it's a good thing. You know, I think, you know, I think it has made him who he is and I'm
proud of who he is because of it, you know, and I'm glad he was able to, I'm not glad he was able to
experience what happened, but I think the best situation came out of it.
I think even with that, even what happened to us, they both like, my daughter's nice. She knows,
she knows, but it's something that like, they're not, they're not like desensitized to it, but they
get it. And, and it's great to, both our kids can walk into any of our locker rooms and everybody's
missing a body part and they're just normal. And they're also super helpful. Anytime, yeah,
Gavin, anytime it's like, oh, yeah. I'm like, yeah, I've gone, can you grab my water bottle for me?
It's in my car. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Nora, same way. She'll grab anything. And Nora, it's actually,
she likes hanging out with the service couple of our teammates have service dogs and she'll like
hang out with them, you know, and watch them. She'll watch them. She takes them for walks.
She takes them for walks. Yeah. With you too. Yeah.
It's a nice parallel. When you mentioned earlier that you were worried about not being able to walk
or run or play with your daughter. And now you're out there on the ice in a different capacity than
you probably had envisioned, but you're still out there. Yeah. Same with like lacrosse too,
because she's, I put on my short legs, my stubbies and like, I'll go out in the field and we'll just
practice catch throwing in. Skiing. You guys go skiing all the time. Skiing. She loves skiing.
The wheelchair lacrosse, the fact that she's like willing to jump into a wheelchair and like,
she didn't want to get out. You gotta get out of the chair. What's the best way for friends and
family to support someone after a traumatic experience like this? Motivate them, do things
with them, include them. Don't assume that they won't do it or can't do it. Ask them and just keep
asking. Like Jeff, you bothered me and bothered me and bothered me about sled hockey. And then my
wife was finally like, you love hockey. Just do it. Yeah. Just do it. Yeah. So stay after people.
Be there for them. Say, hey, if you need something, ask me. Can I help you with that? If not, no big
deal. Let them push them. Push them to challenge themselves, encourage them to go outside of their
comfort zone. Because as soon as they do, they really understand that there's nothing that can
hold them back. So that's my message. I'm sure that's the same as 90% of people facing our
challenges would have the same message. Yeah, absolutely. Just to be supportive and
to force them kind of out of their comfort zone. That's the big thing. It's like everyone gets in
their comfort zone and doesn't want to leave. I get forced out of it. That's Jeff. Yeah, that's me.
Mark Forst. I bug him all the time. He cogs me up. I was questioning if Jeff was going to make it to
the podcast today. Oh yeah. Yeah. Did you have reservations about speaking? No. Yeah. I just,
talking and doing stuff. I did so much of it. I just sort of don't like it anymore. But this
has been very nice because I've done a couple of- Following testimonial, this has been very nice.
Can I put it on my website? Yeah. Mark is, yeah, it's fun hanging out with Mark. Yeah. We have a
long common, me and Jeff. A lot of our activities that we'd like to participate in align very well
together. We're both competitors. Yeah. Oh yeah. Definitely. Yeah. I don't fight as much as you do.
You like sports. Yeah. You claimed that you weren't competitive before though. What? You
claimed that you weren't very competitive or maybe the people that wrote your book
wrote that you weren't particularly competitive before. So I wonder, have you noticed ways that
you've changed since the- I was always like, I like playing sports, but I wasn't super competitive.
Maybe when it came to, I didn't like running. I think I was trying to get that across.
Don't ask me to run the marathon. Is that where you're trying to communicate?
Yeah. Because no way I'll make it. I wouldn't have made it with my legs. 26. I loved hiking.
I was more, yeah, when I got into my twenties, I was like, a lot of my friends played like men league.
I played a little bit of men's league hockey, but then like, I liked hiking. I liked being out in
the woods. Yeah. The biggest thing is, and that's a big part of what we're trying to bring out there
is find the community support. Right? Like if I wasn't running and hanging with Jeff,
and I wasn't in contact with somebody facing similar challenges, me, he never would have convinced
me to play sled hockey. Nobody would have convinced me. I never would have really gotten involved in
sled hockey and tell you, it was like probably one of the best decisions I made. And I wouldn't
have done it unless, you know, I was with Jeff, somebody facing the same challenges, convincing
me to do it. That's a big thing. It's like a friend. You'd really need like a friend to do it because
I didn't want to play and I love hockey and I was very, I was like very,
I just kind of got thrown into it. I got, I had some good, actually a vet I was watching, I was
Marlboro watching the Heroes Cup, first responders, my brother's in the air force and up in New
Hampshire, the air garden. He was playing in this huge tournament. He's like, Hey, get down here.
There's people in sled. You got to come see this. So I went down, I'm looking, I'm watching with my
dad because he had a game right after my brother and I'm watching and I'm with like goalie, tall
goalie firefighter from like Kansas City. He's watching, he's dressed in his full goalie stuff,
ready to go play with my brother. My brother's behind me and this sled hockey player comes over
to me. He's like, I know you. And I'm like, like, no, man, I got to leave. And no, no kidding. They,
oh, they stopped the game and luckily Spalding was there and they had, they just pulled someone on,
Dylan out of their sled. They're like, get out of it. They're like, you're like the same size as
Jeff. Get out of your sled. Took my legs off. They threw me in a sled right there. And I played the
game, like played the rest of the game. And I was like, this is wild. Like people like full speed
blowing by me, like pushing me over. I'm trying to, they're trying to get me a goal. And I'm just
barely moving around at that point. And that's what the community does. That's what it's about.
It's like, you kind of just have to throw yourself into it. And that's a lot. That's a, that's the
thing with a lot of things in life, right? Just try it and see if you like. And I was like, cause I
would never think it would add up to hockey and it did. And it was like speed. Maybe the same
endorphins as, as right now. Same endorphins. I slid on Breckenridge, Colorado too. I skied
and I did sled hockey before I ever walked. Yeah. And it was, and again, it was just being around
that community. They motivated you and they pushed you to do it. And then once you do it, you hooked.
Like I never had, had an interest to do the marathon. And it was being around the veterans
with the freedom team from, from Achilles. And they just pushed you and they're like,
no, you're doing it. You're doing it. And I'm like, no, I really don't want to do it. And like,
no, you're doing it. And then you do it and you're like, oh, wow, I can do this. And then it's like,
now it just becomes chasing that next one. What did doing that marathon 10 years after the bombing
do for you? You know, it allowed me, I was really out there just to like thank people, right. And
take in the crowd and, you know, just absorb the energy from people. And, you know, I stopped off
at quite a few of the medical tents to thank those individuals for volunteering and being there
because yeah, that's their time that they're donating and dedicating to be there to be supportive.
And I never realized the new save lives. They save a lot of runners. Yeah, they do. Yeah. I think
this year the stats are like a thousand people didn't finish like 800 something medical 10,
there's a marathon, but it was I did. Oh yeah. It shows. Look, I never really realized how important
community and support is. So like that's a community, you know, people in volunteering
and what it takes for some individuals to succeed, you know, and how much it takes for us to succeed
during that event. We need all those people. We need the fans. We need the medical. We need the
event organizers. We need all those people or none of this happens. It is a huge, huge undertaking.
Yeah. The logistics are crazy. When we were getting shuttled from Boston, from the Sheridan
back to Hopkinson to start, I was just blown away by how many officers were there. Like
it is, it's a community that's so it's like its own worlds and in, in that what the support is,
you know, and that's, and I wanted to go out there and just thank everybody for support, support, not
just me, but supporting everybody that was out there doing it. And that's what the fans were
doing. That's what me and my buddies were doing there that day, supporting a friend, like to show
them, Hey, we care. We're glad you're doing this and we're here for you. And you know, for this,
like they put the training in that's like a year of training half year of running in the winter.
Yeah. That's the hardest thing you go from snow, sleep, rain, ice, get your parts frozen. Yeah.
They're fun. I know. They're fits and pieces frozen. For those who aren't familiar with
the functionality of it, can you maybe briefly describe the difference between above knee and
below knee from a functionality standpoint? Yeah. There's a paper cut and then there's a negative.
Paper cuts and amputations. Yeah. The above the, so it's, it's the joints, right? You got your
ankle joint and your knee joint. You definitely want more joints. You don't want less. Yeah.
I'm just jealous. I don't really think it's a paper cut for below the knee, but, you know,
I'm just, it's out of jealousy because to have your knee functionality is so much easier in the
amputee in general from anybody. It's tough. It's not, you got to deal with your leg. It's not fitting
every day. You know, it's something different every day. It feels different. Every time you put it on,
you just got to get used to it. It's like a uncomfortable shoe that has like thorns.
Go put thorns and rocks in your shoe and then walk around every day.
It's like a glove that's way too tight and it doesn't fit right. And then your fingers are still
cold. But it beats, I guess, like, then you know how it feels to be in a wheelchair. Like at home,
I'll have my wheelchair. Just to be able to use my legs and to stand upright and actually to do
something. Yeah. I put my stubbies on and go mow my lawn. And, you know, you have a rough time,
but then you don't take it for granted that you get to move. Even with the knees, it's difficult
with microprocessor knees. Like some movements, you'll just like lose your knee. You're gone.
You're going down. Financially, the cost of below the knee is less than above the knee, significantly
cheaper to be below the knee. Your functionality is a lot better being below the knee than above
the knee. Like Jeff's situation being double above the knee is like, I mean, then there's hip
articulates. Yeah. That's another joint. That's another joint. So that's even more difficult.
So me personally, I could care less if I had any legs or any movement in my legs. If I have a war
prosthetic again, I would be okay with being in a wheelchair. As long as I'm up and about and out
and about. So you can talk to people. You can talk to guys off a truck. I could sell ice to an Eskimo.
But no, it's, you know, the reality is, is just accepting our situation, right? Above the knee,
below the knee, spinal cord injury, whatever it's just accept it because it's never going to change.
It's not going to grow back. You know, they are doing advancements where they're attaching below
the knees, you know, legs and stuff. Amy Purdy had the opportunity to put some below the knees
back on. Like the guy I was down at Walter Reed with, they put, they surgically reattached a
cadaver's arms and they function on them. Yeah. So yeah, technology is insane.
Yeah. Technology will continue to evolve. Yeah, it will continue to evolve. But I, you know,
I look at my situation, I don't need to surgically put a leg back on. No, thank you. I don't want to
take the rejection medications, the risk of infections. I live a great life, you know,
and I live a great life because of support too. If we keep our body, like our body's healthy,
eat right, we've run pretty much. Exercise. Yeah. Yeah. It's a thing. Like I feel like there's some
arbitrary standard of like recovery is being able to do X, Y, Z, but it looks different for everyone.
Everyone has different goals. Yeah. And it's not like if someone doesn't walk again after a spinal
cord injury that they like didn't try hard enough. It's like everyone's situation is different. So
absolutely. Every socket, every amputee, we all walk different. We all have different fits. What
works for me doesn't always work for everybody else. Well, even normal people, like they,
everyone has different gates. No one's the same. And it's the same with just because someone's an
amputee doesn't mean I know him. It doesn't mean I like him. Right. Do you like every person?
I don't have to like you because we both miss a leg. Like I usually do like everybody. Yeah.
We'll help you. Yeah. We'll help. Yeah. We'll have to help you. Um, but no, I mean,
you guys are both able to joke around a lot. And I know like in your bookie, there's a quote about
you referencing like Lieutenant Dan from Forest Gump, like the role of humor and recovery must be
essential. That was right there. I, that was the first time I woke up. Yeah. I have my best friend,
Sully, and he was staring at me. I had the breathing tube and I couldn't talk. Like, so I always tell
the joke. I'm like, oh, I'm not in heaven, Sully. But he was, he was scared. Like I saw it in his
face. You know, he's scared. He's like, Hey, you don't have your legs. It's like doing that to me.
I'm like, I know. Then he gave me a pen and pad. And I wrote the first thing I wrote was LT.Dan,
Lieutenant Dan. And he looked at it and he goes, you're an idiot. And then the FBI came in.
And they're like, yeah, hey, they're like, get his breathing tubes out. He's like,
cause I wrote down, I was like, I saw the, I saw the dude. He was right next to me. He had a bag
and a bag. And this was like that Tuesday. Yeah. The next Tuesday morning I wrote that. And then
they got the breathing tubes out and I had to work with them up until Wednesday. I just saw in the
sketch and they were showing me all kinds of pictures. I was going to say, you're already
going through enough trying to recover and making you do all this work. Oh, I had the best nurse,
Odessa, the Rottweiler. She was great. She would swear at the state police, the FBI. Get out of
here. What are you? All right, time's up. Like, no, we need more time. All right.
You done recording? No, I still got to go in here. Yeah. Yeah. No. So for people that maybe want to
get involved with adaptive sports or support organizations that benefit people like you and
people in situations like yourselves, where would you recommend that they go to find?
Oh, I mean, I'd recommend go to the Mark Network. That was a plug. That was a segue into,
uh, into your, that was a softball. Yeah. So, you know, no, seriously, we're looking to partner. So
if you are a nonprofit organization that helps people with any type of disability, reach out to
me, the Mark Network, it's a free app, MARC, uh, and provide us with your links. We want to promote
you, right? We, we interview people. We, we bring awareness to what people are doing out there.
If you have an adaptive sports program, reach out to the MARK Network, please get on our app and
promote your product. That's who we are. We're a promotional platform for people to promote what
they're doing to help other people find what you're doing so they can participate, they can donate,
and they can volunteer. Um, so yeah, I'd say go to the MARK Network, but, uh, there's a ton of
great organizations like Jeff, you know, I'll let Jeff go through his, you know, I have mine that I
believe into like a leg forever. The, the, the Webb and Norden Foundation, the Remarkable Foundation
is mine. Uh, Greg Hill Foundation, the Clatter Foundation with, uh, Ken Casey, they, they helped
us out. Um, Semper Fi, which actually was the America's Fund. Um, there's a ton of adaptive,
Granite State adaptive, Vermont adaptive, Maine adaptive. Um, there are so many great,
great organizations. Uh, we have an adaptive gym here. Um, ADAPTX. So, you know, uh, just do some
research. Where's that? I think it's in Lancaster. Full 17. Yeah. So Jeff would go into a couple of
organizations that he knows and he likes. The gym here is, is amazing. Yeah. It's really cool.
It's like super, you walk in, it's flat. I mean, that's the key. It's like any, there's a lot of,
yeah, no stairs. I mean, that's one of, I think that's one of my goals too, is like,
people assume that you have to have a gym outfit at like Spalding to start working with people
with disabilities. This is like open floor spaces actually better. So it's like, it's,
it's less work to make it more accessible. Like, don't get me wrong. Spalding has a great
facility. It's great for like, I think it's great for inpatient, but this would be like premiere for
like someone that's trying to get back to their life. And yeah, that's our goal to kind of
reacclimate people back into their community. Like look at something that's not a hospital.
This is like a gym that you work out. It's great. Planet fitness. This is like you're with people.
You're not with patients and you're not a patient anymore. You're a person. It gives you back your
dignity and your pride. Absolutely. And it's like you walk in here just like in your normal. Yeah.
Thank you. That's a lot. But I definitely appreciate both of you coming all the way out to
Lancaster. I know it's in the middle of nowhere, so you even have to eat a salad for lunch. So I
apologize for that. The salad was good. I went into like the tofu stuff. Yeah. You can pay me
to eat that. I had a nice burger. I'm going to have a steak tonight for dinner. Well, we'll plug,
we'll make sure the Mark Network is listed in the show notes. I'll include Stronger,
the movie and the book as well. What was one of the contingencies that the most handsome actor
in Hollywood play you? No, I didn't. I said, you didn't pick Jake Gyllenhaal? No, I said,
so they make us look like each other. I said they'd have to hit me with a bat a couple of times.
Get you to his level. Yeah. Or they have to do plastic surgery on Jake to make him look
better like you. No, he did a fantastic job though. Talk about someone that is,
he's serious and he wanted to get like the disability down. Like he was
intrigued about the legs and the movement and what it had to, you know, what I was going through,
just like everybody else that I worked with. It was awesome. Good. No, I think he did a phenomenal
job. I mean, I truly like, I'm just impressed with everything positive that you have to say about
that individual, you know, about him. It was cool after too, is we had some fundraising and he did
a fundraiser where he started this program called the Stronger program with Wiggle Your Toes and
Minnesota. And we got like 30 running legs for kids and we kept it going for a couple of years
and we're just trying to keep it going right now, just doing promos. And so hopefully that keeps on
keeping on. That'd be awesome. I mean, he's kids, they need a lot of kids with amputees,
they like the blades so they can run. Yeah. And the blades aren't covered by insurance most of
the time. Unless children, I don't know about, I know as far as if I went to go get a running.
It's different. Yeah. They only cover a certain amount. But in mass, I guess they're trying to
work towards more of that. 80 at least, you know, covering a good portion of it through insurance.
No, but I love, I like seeing someone like Jake's with his status being so down to earth and so
involved and so dedicated to doing what he did. And I know, I know I trust Jeff's opinion on people
because I know Jeff really well. And when Jeff speaks highly about someone like that, it's like,
he's definitely the real deal. So yeah, I could text him at any time and he's always there.
So he's checking in, see how I'm doing, what I'm up to. That's cool. That's awesome. Yeah.
This summer we were hanging out with him and he was taking Nora for rides in his Tesla. It was funny.
She was, Oh my gosh. She loved it. Imagine you're like, yeah, I just hang out with Jake.
Like your daughter hangs out with Jake, like everybody's going to want to be her friend.
Yeah. So when I asked you earlier about how your life is better now after
something like that, that's pretty cool. I could have added Jake and
hanging out with Mark. Mark and Jake. Yeah. We would have other survivors too. Like the survivors
are awesome. We have a good family. Like we have Fenway this year. Again, Fenway invites us every
year, which is amazing. And that was the first time I was on the field in like six years. I
finally did it. You went this year again? Yeah. Nora wanted to go. She wanted to say play ball.
So we all said play ball. You know what? I swear he only went because I was in Aruba.
Yeah. We were taking a vacation and I went and it was fun. Yeah. Gronk did the spike. Yeah. With
the ball. Yeah. And I didn't see Pedro, but we did the play ball and then got like, it was, it's kind
of, I'm like trying to walk off and we're getting like a standing O from everyone, which is fantastic.
It's the Red Sox organizations. They're obviously on like for us. I literally just pick up the phone
with them and anything you need. They have been amazing. I've been, I the first year, so I've been
going back and Jeff's been skipping out. Then the one year I skipped out, he goes back. He's like,
Mark's not going. I'm going. I don't have to talk to him. Hey, we've been a lot. I was like,
I only went cause Nora wanted to go. She was like, dad, we got to go. And she's at that age,
nine. She's like, she likes to do stuff. And I'm like, all right. I know that's, I'm blessed with
my son. I, 90% of what I do, I would never go to certain concerts. I would never go to Fenway.
I would never be near a crowd again if I had a choice, but my nephew, my niece, my other nephew,
my other niece, Uncle Mark, do we want to go to Morgan wall and can you call? Yeah. We want to
go to Zach Brown. Can you get us tickets at Fenway? Like, yes. Can we go, can we go to the Red Sox
game and throw out the first pitch? My nephew, Finley loves baseball. So I'm like, yes, we'll go.
But if I had choice, I wouldn't go. Yeah. But so that was me for a while, but I do like that.
Family members pushing you out of your comfort zone. They do. But once we go there, the people
that are there, the best, they treat us like they are amazing. They're so sweet. And the crowd,
yeah, the crowd. It's just, it just reminds you of the support support. And it's like, it does drive
you to do more and do better and come out of your shell. Yeah. But thank you for having us, man. I
appreciate it. This was great. It was least got me to see my friend, Jeff, you know, cause I have to
always bother him to hang out and he's always, he's busy. He's a busy man. Right. Appreciate you guys
taking time out of here. I was trying to get you to skate yesterday. I had some stuff. Thank you.
Thank you for having us. Thank you for listening to the AdaptX Podcast. Our effort to amplify the
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