The Eight Annual Courage To Come Back Awards
Recipients
- Sam Sullivan, Mayor of Vancouver, has been named as the first recipient of a Special Courage To Come Back Award. Read more about Mayor Sullivan >>
- Jamie Waterlow, 25, of Vancouver, has been named as the 2006 Courage to Come Back Award recipient in the Physical Rehabilitation category. Read more about Jamie >>
- Randy Miller, 52, of New Westminster, has been named as the 2006 Courage to Come Back Award recipient in the Addiction category. Read more about Randy >>
- Renea Mohammed, 35, of Burnaby, has been named as the 2006 Courage to Come Back Award recipient in the Mental Health category. Read more about Renea >>
- Kim Black, 24 or Vancouver, has been named as the 2006 Courage to Come Back Award recipient in the Medical category. Read more about Kim >>
- Jeneece Edroff, 12, of Victoria, has been named as the 2006 Courage to Come Back Award recipient in the Youth category. Read more about Jeneece >>
- Gladys Evoy, 41, of Vancouver, is the 2005 Courage to Come Back Award recipient in the Inspirational Achievement category. Read more about Gladys >>
Sam Sullivan - Special Award
 Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan will be the recipient of a special Courage to Come Back Award. The award recognizes his inspirational achievement in overcoming great challenges, reaching significant heights within the community and experiencing incredible personal and professional success.
The mayor, now 46, grew up in Vancouver. At the age of 19, Sam broke his neck in a skiing accident, rendering him a quadriplegic. After experiencing a period of despair, he survived and began the journey back to living a full life. Sam attended Simon Fraser University, earning a Business Administration degree, as well as founding several non-profit organizations. These organizations, such as the Tetra Society, which helps create assistive devices, and the Disabled Sailing Association, which allows people with significant disabilities to sail unassisted by using the Martin-16 sailboat, benefits thousands of people with disabilities.
Mayor Sam Sullivan is also the co-inventor of the Trail Rider, a one-wheeled vehicle that has allowed him and many others to participate in hiking and camping trips. In 2004, he was recognized for these achievements and ceremoniously awarded the Order of Canada.
Between 1993 and 2005, Sam served as a Vancouver city counselor, running for the mayor’s position last year and elected last November. During the closing ceremonies of the 2006 Torino Winter Olympics, millions of people around the world witnessed him proudly waving the Olympic flag to invite the world to Vancouver in 2010.
“This award isn’t about Sam Sullivan the politician,” says Courage to Come back chair Lorne Segal. “It’s about Sam Sullivan the man, what he’s achieved from his wheelchair and what his achievements mean for all of us. We’re honored to pay tribute to this remarkable Canadian.”
This is the first Special award in the eight-year history of the Courage to Come Back. Mayor Sullivan will receive his award at the gala dinner on Thursday, May 4th at the Hyatt Regency Hotel. Six other outstanding and inspirational individuals from around British Columbia will also be awarded in six categories for their amazing achievements.
Jamie Waterlow - Physical Rehabilitation
Jamie Waterlow, 25, of Vancouver, has been named as the 2006 Courage to Come Back Award recipient in the Physical Rehabilitation category.
A diabetic since the age of 14, Jamie has been outgoing, energetic and active in sports for most of his life. At the age of 20, a friend suggested that he try camp counseling. So, he did, eventually leading to a position at the YMCA’s Camp Howdy, north of Port Moody. “I fell in love with it,” Jamie remembers, “you can be a giant kid.”
His troubles began in July 2003 with a cut on his leg. At another YMCA camp in the B.C. Interior, he had twisted his knee, causing the knee to balloon and the cut got infected. By the time he was admitted to St. Paul’s Hospital six days later, his life hung in the balance: he had necrotizing fasciitis - flesh-eating disease. Left untreated it would kill him, and quickly.
Jamie spent more than three weeks in an induced coma while the surgeons worked on him. He would undergo 24 surgeries over the next six months, but his leg couldn’t be saved - it was amputated that September. Jamie had a few moments of despair, but he had his family and friends there to support him and had many visitors to keep up his spirits. “S--- happens,” has been his attitude, “let’s move on.”
He did move on, back to the field he loved. Jamie earned a diploma in recreational leadership at Langara College in 2005 and will be a senior staff member at Camp Howdy this summer. He’s active in the Humour for Health program at G.F. Strong Rehabilitation Centre and facilitates “Laughter Yoga” sessions for people of all ages. He’s a leader of YMCA child care before and after school, a wheelchair athlete, competitive paddler, bungee jumper and amateur comedian. “Laughter,” he maintains, “is the best therapy a person can get.”
Jamie will receive his Courage to Come Back Award at the eighth annual gala dinner at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Vancouver on Thursday, May 4th.
Photo credit: Wayne Leidenfrost, The Province
 Randy Miller - Addiction
Randy Miller, 52, of New Westminster, has been named as the 2006 Courage to Come Back Award recipient in the Addiction category.
Randy started smoking pot as a youngster and eventually moved on to harder drugs. By the age of 17 he was living on the streets, followed by two years in prison for drug trafficking. After a clean period in his twenties, he took painkillers for an injured knee and got back into doing drugs. He eventually became a heroin addict, securing his drug supply by acting as a ‘middler’ – a bird dog - for a drug dealer. “I didn’t want to look in the mirror,” Randy remembers, “but the drugs meant I had no problems and no emotions. I didn’t have to deal with those things.”
He was well-known to police in the downtown east side but was not considered a threat to anyone, so he managed to stay out of jail. He appeared in the documentary Through a Blue Lens, filmed by a group of police officers called The Odd Squad, chronicling the lives of drug addicts. On the show, Randy saw himself writhing and screaming on the ground and “it scared the hell out of me,” he says.
Later, confined to hospital with pneumonia, he met members of his long-lost family and discovered, despite all odds, that he was not HIV-positive. “That was the turning point,” he says. Being given the opportunity to meet his young nephews for the first time motivated him to enter a recovery program, where he spent three years being weaned off methadone.
Shortly afterward, Randy reactivated his longshoreman’s ticket, started working, and met his current girlfriend. He also started speaking to teenagers in schools about his drug addiction, “not preaching, but educating,” he says. The students are genuinely interested in learning from Randy’s experiences as, “many times during my talk you can hear a pin drop.” As a reward for six clean, drug free years, Randy recently bought himself a Ford Mustang.
Randy will receive his Courage to Come Back Award at the eighth annual gala dinner at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Vancouver on Thursday, May 4th.
Photo credit: Wayne Leidenfrost, The Province
Renea Mohammed - Mental Health Category
 Renea Mohammed, 35, of Burnaby, has been named as the 2006 Courage to Come Back Award recipient in the Mental Health category.
Renea had a good childhood, growing up with two loving and supportive parents. She earned a B.A. from Simon Fraser University, got married in 1996 and began a Masters program at UBC in Library and Information Studies. It wasn’t until this time that symptoms of mental illness started to slowly develop. She began to believe she was under surveillance, thinking people were constantly talking about her and hearing multiple voices, as if there were people in the room with her when she was actually alone. Despite hearing these voices, Renea successfully completed her Masters Degree.
Renea’s husband Chris would take her to the hospital, where she would often refuse medications except when forced. The diagnosis: paranoid schizophrenia. Over a period of four years, Renea made three serious suicide attempts, as the voices kept telling her that she deserved to be dead. Finally, out of the hospital but under the doctor’s orders, she took the drug olanzapine and the voices stopped.
“I reached the point where I realized that the medication stopped the voices - if that was true, the voices weren’t real,” Renea remembers. “I began taking the pills voluntarily and I started getting better.” She credits Chris with helping her, “he was always willing to listen to me, making me feel like I always had an ally. The hard times just made us stronger.”
For three years, Renea volunteered at the Vancouver Humane Society, and served on its Board. She also started speaking publicly about her experiences for the B.C. Schizophrenia Society (BCSS). In 2002, she earned a Community Mental Health Worker certificate from Douglas College and became a Peer Support Worker. She also worked as a teacher and trainer with the BCSS B.R.I.D.G.E.S. psycho-education program and was part of the team that brought the program into Vancouver. Now, she job-shares 50-50 coordinating Vancouver Coastal Health’s Peer Support Worker program. She and Chris are still happily married.
Renea will receive her Courage to Come Back Award at the eighth annual gala dinner at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Vancouver on Thursday, May 4th.
Photo credit: Wayne Leidenfrost, The Province
Kim Black - Medical Category
 Kim Black, 24 or Vancouver, has been named as the 2006 Courage to Come Back Award recipient in the Medical category.
At the age of 16 months, Kim was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis (CF), a chronic genetic condition, which generates thick secretions in the lungs and lining of the digestive tract. She remembers frequent trips from her Campbell River home to BC's Children's Hospital for checkups and treatment. By age 11, Kim was doing her own physiotherapy to clear her lungs in order to ward off infections. That same year, Kim decided to make nursing her adult occupation because "the ones who looked after me during long hospital stays were so wonderful."
She was an active teen, busy participating in sports and dance, with a supportive family and many friends. Her medical challenges increased with the onset of CF-related diabetes just before her high school graduation. Despite bouts with kidney stones and developing moderate osteopenia, she set off for nursing training and completed her final exam while hooked up to intravenous antibiotics. Kim is now a Pediatric Community Health Nurse in Vancouver, where she cares for and counsels chronically ill children and their parents.
Kim has been fund-raising and giving back to her community for as long as she can remember. She started speaking about CF in public as a nine-year old and enlisted the help of hockey star Rob Brind'Amour to raise more than $300,000 over a span of 10 years for the CF Foundation in their home town.
Kim currently lives with her boyfriend James and their French bulldog Bette. "I love the kids I work with," she says, "and it is so important for these youngsters to stay positive." The motto she has used through all her life.
Kim will receive her Courage to Come Back Award at the eighth annual gala dinner at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Vancouver on Thursday, May 4th. The event is nearly sold out; for tickets, call 604-675-2327.
Photo credit: Gerry Kahrmann, The Province
Jeneece Edroff - Youth Category
 Jeneece Edroff, 12, of Victoria, has been named as the 2006 Courage to Come Back Award recipient in the Youth category.
Jeneece was diagnosed at age three with a severe form of Neurofibromatosis, a genetic condition that causes tumour growth in the tissues that surround the nerves. At the age of five, she underwent surgery to straighten her spine. Her parents were told that she would never walk again but months later, the little girl ran to her doctor and hugged him with joy and gratitude.
“We knew she was a fighter right from the beginning,” Mom Angie says. “She makes her own decisions about the things she does.” At the age of seven, grateful for help from the Variety Club, Jeneece raised $164 for the children’s charity through a penny drive at her school. The next year, with help from CHEK-TV, she raised $27,000. Over the next five years, she raised more than $300,000 while taking part in other charity projects including Cops for Cancer, the Easter Seals 24-hour relay and events for the BC Neurofibromatosis Foundation.
Jeneece undergoes regular chemotherapy treatments in case any of her tumours are malignant, but she also leads a very full life. She attends Glanford Middle School in Victoria during the mornings, enjoying reading and drawing components of the class.
She’s in pain most days, but believes it is really nice to help other kids. “It’s not a big deal,” Jeneece says. “They’ve helped me [through Variety],” she adds, “so I really like to help them.”
Jeneece will receive her Courage to Come Back Award at the eighth annual gala dinner at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Vancouver on Thursday, May 4th. The event is nearly sold out; for tickets, call 604-675-2327.
Photo credit: Darren Stone, The Province
Gladys Evoy - Social Adversity
Gladys Evoy, 43, of Vancouver, has been named as the 2006 Courage to Come Back Award recipient in the Social Adversity category.
Gladys was born on the prairies, daughter of an alcoholic mother and a violent father. At seven, her parents divorced and she was moved to Vancouver. By the age of 11 she was smoking pot, at 12 she started drinking, and at 13 she hit the streets.
“I said I’ll never do this, or that…,” remembers Gladys, “but I ended up doing all my nevers.” By the time her father died, she was 19, a drunk and a drug addict for the next dozen years. At 26, she got pregnant but gave the child up. Nichole will be 18 this December, “I always hope to make contact,” Gladys says.
She’s amazed now that she stayed alive, through all the bad trips and scary men. At 30, she bore twins, but they were taken away. She had been ashamed to hold them because of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.
A kind lady at the Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre got Gladys into detox. “We’ll love you until you can love yourself,” she was told. She joined a 12-step program and began the road to recovery. “I had to learn how to live and to take responsibility for my actions,” she recalls.
She received her high school diploma, got her twin boys back, met a good man, got married in 1995 and gave birth to their daughter Patty the next year. By 2001 she had her Alcohol and Drug Counseling Certificate, and began working at the YWCA’s Crabtree Corner as a family outreach worker. She also works at counseling and giving seminars at Sir William Macdonald Elementary School. “My work lets me give back to the community which did so much to help me,” she says.
Gladys will receive her Courage to Come Back Award at the eighth annual gala dinner at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Vancouver on Thursday, May 4th. The event is nearly sold out; for tickets, call 604-675-2328.
Photo credit: Les Bazso, The Province
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