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| Deborra Hope
Co-Host & Platinum Partner |
Kevin Evans
Co-Host & CMHF Board Director |
10th Anniversary
Courage To Come Back Awards
Please join The Courage To Come Back Awards' hosts Deborra Hope and Kevin Evans at the 10th Anniversary Gala Dinner
SOLD OUT
Thursday May 8th, 2008
Hyatt Regency, Vancouver
Reception, 5.30pm
Dinner and Program, 6.15pm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Michael Childs - Youth category
Michael Childs of Burnaby has been named as the 2008 Courage To Come Back Award recipient in the Youth category.
On May 16, 2008, Michael Childs will walk across the stage at his high school graduation to receive his diploma with the rest of his class. A milestone along life’s path, to be sure, but for Michael and his family, it will be a tremendous accomplishment. It wasn’t so long ago that Michael couldn’t walk at all, or even speak or feed himself. The journey he has made in a few short years is nothing less than courageous.
When Michael was 7, he sustained a terrible, traumatic head injury which resulted in secondary cerebral palsy. Rushed to hospital, he was put into the intensive care unit. For long agonizing months, he could neither speak, nor eat, nor move voluntarily – Michael couldn’t even recognize his friends and family. He was agitated and frequently cried. He was scared.
Eventually, he was moved to a specialized facility where he began a year-long process of rehabilitation. Over time, slowly and painfully, he became more aware. His eyesight returned, he learned to swallow food again, and he learned to use a power wheelchair. Life would never be the same, but maybe it could go on.
Michael began to laugh at jokes again and to respond to yes/no questions with a nod or shake of the head. Better yet, his determination and never-give-up attitude began to return as he worked hard to regain his life. He began re-learning to walk using a standing frame walker, and returned to school. Over the course of one summer, he regained the power to speak. At his grade 7 graduation, he used his walker to accept the “Most Inspiring Student” award. The audience of students, teachers and parents gave him a standing ovation.
This year, he is on the Grad Council at Moscrop Secondary. Although he has only partial use of one hand, he attempts every task and perseveres at everything he tries. He mentors younger students, and is looking forward to his work experience at a seniors centre. At the beginning of the school year, he set a goal for himself of meeting as many people as he can because he wanted his grad year to be one to remember. Michael also demonstrates an amazing sense of social responsibility and is determined to give back to the community that has sustained him by volunteering regularly for organizations who have helped him along his path.
Because of his brain injury, Michael can get easily fatigued. But when he is rested and ready to go, nothing can hold him down. Indeed, it is hard to think of anything that could stop this remarkable young man. We at Coast are very proud to have Michael accept the Youth Courage To Come Back Award. Photo credit: Wayne Leidenfrost, The Province
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Marlene Swift - Addiction category
 Marlene Swift of Prince Rupert has been named as the 2008 Courage To Come Back Award recipient in the Addiction category.
Marlene Swift is our recipient this year in the Addiction category, but her story goes far beyond that. Born into a troubled family, Marlene and two of her four siblings were given at an early age to their grandparents to be raised. Until Marlene was 10, however, both her grandmother and grandfather were serious alcoholics and created a chaotic home for the young girl. Marlene vividly remembers fearing Christmas, knowing it would be a month-long drunken free-for-all with fistfights and smashed ornaments. Worst of all was the terrible sexual abuse she would sometimes experience from “friends of the family.”
By the time she was 16, Marlene had married to escape her troubles – it did nothing but increase them. Herself now an alcoholic, by the time she was 21 she had given her own daughter to her grandmother to raise and was using hard drugs. She and her husband divorced. Sinking further into her addictions, Marlene was partying daily. She entered into a relationship with a very violent man and one awful night they had a knife fight. Marlene was charged with attempted murder, but was thankfully acquitted as the case was declared to be self-defense. Her second child was born during this volatile relationship and he, too, was handed to Marlene’s grandmother to care for. In 1983, Marlene was working as a cab driver in Prince Rupert. Early one sunny November morning, her passenger suddenly slid across the seat, held a knife to her throat, and ordered her to turn the cab around. They were on a deserted stretch of highway. Marlene began to pray for her life. The young man ordered her to drive down a side road where he pulled her from the cab and brutally beat and raped her. He took her cab and left her for dead. Crawling along in the ditch, fearing he’d return, Marlene was eventually able to flag a passing motorist who took her to hospital. For the next nine months, she didn’t leave her house and was too frightened to answer the door or phone. She had nightmares every time she tried to sleep – and she was dreading the upcoming trial. At the trial, Marlene’s assailant pled guilty and received a five-year sentence. At last, Marlene felt she could start to put the past behind her. Soon, she did one of the bravest acts in her courageous life and went to a 12-step meeting, and then another, and another. Having sporadically gone in the past, she began to regularly attend church with her grandmother and found her strength and guidance there.
Since then, she hasn’t looked back. She finished her education, and went on to take a government-certified alcohol counselor course – at last, Marlene had found her true calling. Her compassion and understanding of the devastating effects of addictions on families enabled her to truly reach the people she was trying to help. Today, she is the Coordinator of the North Coast Victim Services, working closely with the Prince Rupert RCMP to help the victims of sexual assault or domestic violence. She volunteers her time generously, and regularly provides information and workshops to the community on subjects ranging from dealing with grief to sexual exploitation of youth. All of Marlene’s many friends and co-workers say that her compassion, caring, and willingness to be open about her history inspires them to give more, too. Thank you, Marlene, for agreeing to become a Coast 2008 Courage To Come Back award recipient: your story inspires us all. Photo credit: Kris Schumacher, Prince Rupert Daily News
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Trisha Baptie - Social Adversity category Trisha Baptie of Burnaby has been named as the 2008 Courage To Come Back Award recipient in the Social Adversity category.
On January 22, 2007, a murder trial began in New Westminster that would hold the world’s attention for months. An unlikely reporter sat in the courtroom, Trisha Baptie, in her first assignment as a “citizen correspondent” for online news magazine Orato.com. Trisha is not a reporter, so why had she agreed to cover this terrible story? Because she knew that she easily could have been one of the accused’s victims. Trisha knew several of the missing women and her story is in many ways a remarkable tale of personal courage and persistence to escape their fate. Raised in a violent and abusive home, Trisha was placed in foster care at 12. She quickly learned that alcohol and drugs seemed to provide an escape, and by 15 she was out of school and already in her first rehab facility trying to break free. It didn’t take. By 17, she was a mother for the first time. Over the next decade, Trisha’s life spiraled out of control and, getting her escort license at 18, she would ultimately end up working the streets in Vancouver’s downtown eastside. By then, she was pregnant with her second child, seriously drug addicted, and the survivor of many violent relationships. It seemed as if Trisha was destined to be just another sad statistic.
Being a mother, however, was the one thing Trisha could really hold on to. Making a different life for her kids than she had had. Showing them a better way. When an outreach volunteer smiled at her one cold October night in 2000, she didn’t turn away as she had so many times before. It was too cold out to say no, so she accepted the hot chocolate that was given with a smile that warmed Trisha to her core and seemed to say “I am happy you’re here.” This was the first helping hand that had been reached out to her in years. Trisha began to think, for the first time in a long time, that it was possible to change her life for the better. To change her children’s lives. It wasn’t easy. Trisha struggled to stop using drugs, stop drinking, get out of the cycle of violence and hopelessness. She had many milestones to reach – getting a social insurance number, finding a safe place to make a home for herself and her children (which would soon number 3) – and through it all fighting the temptation to escape her problems the only way she had ever known. She had to learn how to trust, how to function in a different social paradigm, how to believe she could be accepted in it. Day by day, with the help of a new circle of support, through triumph and temptation and setback, she fought on. In 2005, she successfully completed the Humanities 101 program at UBC and proved to herself that she could not only set unimaginably difficult goals, she could achieve them. "Making changes doesn't always feel good, it requires a certain amount of discomfort and sacrifice,” Trisha says. “You need to look into the future and envision the benefit you will reap by making sacrifices one good decision at a time."
Through it all, Trisha has not forgotten those she left behind and continues to reach out to women living in the DTES, offering help where she can so they, too, can overcome poverty, prostitution, drug addiction, and life on the streets. Congratulations, Trisha. Coast is proud to have you as our 2008 Courage To Come Back recipient in the Social Adversity category.
Photo credit: Jason Payne, The Province . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .John Banovich - Physical Rehabilitation category
John Banovich of Surrey has been named as the 2008 Courage To Come Back Award recipient in the Physical Rehabilitation category. On February 1 1997, John Banovich was traveling in his Jeep on the King George Highway when he was hit head-on by a drunk driver, who died from the force of the impact. John was rushed to the Royal Columbian hospital where doctors began to stabilize his injuries to his face, wrist, arm and hips, reconstructing his face, even rebuilding his right socket and wiring his jaw shut. They put plates and screws in his wrist, face and hips, and had to remove the patches of fabric from his clothing that had been pressed into his flesh by the seat belt. John spent an agonizing three months in hospital, most of the time being confined in isolation so his screams of pain wouldn’t disturb the other patients. On a liquid-only diet, filled with painkillers, John’s weight plummeted to 91 pounds. Surveying the damage to his pelvis and legs, doctors said he’d likely never walk again and by the time he got home, he was wheelchair-bound, relying on others for everything, even bathing. The pain and the trauma of that crash lingered with John and he began having horrifying nightmares and was prescribed more pills: antidepressants this time. Over the next 18 months, however, John started the long fight back, progressing from a wheelchair, to crutches, then a cane and eventually walking on his own once again. The one-time avid athlete and long-distance runner had another problem: finances. Unable to work, he was forced to sell nearly everything he owned. His promising film career looked hopeless: who would hire someone so disabled, so thin, so scarred, unable to walk? And yet there was a spark in John, something that made him get up, do the painful rehab work, and continue trying. One other thing motivated John – the desire to tell his story so that others would not suffer as he has. One month after getting out of hospital, John spoke to 800 young people at a rally about the dangers of drinking and driving. He told them his powerful story and realized that the telling, too, was part of his recovery. Since then, he has continued to spread the message to countless others, speaks regularly to high school and college students, new Canadian groups, First Nations groups, anyone who is willing to hear about his horrific collision and the tragic, lifelong impact it has had on him and his loved ones. He cherishes the thousands of thank-you cards and letters he gets in return. John reads them in recovery every time he has to go in for another surgery, motivating him to get through more pain. To others who are suffering John says, “You might be asking yourself, ‘Why did this happen to me?’ Do not allow yourself to focus on the negative…allow yourself to be open to positive change for the better and focusing on a future time when you will have overcome your adversities.”
John Banovich is a powerful example of strength, coming back from a horrifying crash to teach and reach others. Today, John is back in the film business, both behind and in front of the camera, and is happily married with a baby on the way. He volunteers with MADD – speaking with the media and politicians, running every year in Stanley Park to raise funds - still giving weekly presentations, and continues to inspire his friends and family because they know that even now, John battles chronic pain on a daily basis and keeps on trying, keeps on smiling, keeps on finding The Courage To Come Back. Photo credit: Gerry Kahrmann, The Province
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Zosia Ettenberg - Medical category Zosia Ettenberg of Langley has been named as the 2008 Courage To Come Back Award recipient in the Medical category.
Zosia is truly an inspiration to all who are privileged to know her. Born in Quebec to a loving Polish /Swiss family, she was stricken by polio at 6 months of age and began the first of many long hospital stays, surgeries, and rehabilitation sessions. Zosia did not walk until she was nearly four but even then was already forming her life’s mission: to be a Physiotherapist. She graduated at 20 from McGill University with distinction, not once requesting accommodation or adaptations for her disability.
For twenty five years, Zosia progressed in her career, eventually reaching a senior management position, all the while donating her time and expertise to her favourite charities. In 1978 she met and married the love of her life, Mel, and they together eventually adopted two young brothers from Poland to raise as their own. Disaster struck in 1992 when Zosia, appearing in a local play, literally “broke a leg,” which was repaired. Ten years later she had a knee replacement and was left with a dislocating knee cap. Finally, after a lifetime of working to avoid it, was forced to use a wheelchair while she waited three years for the surgery to repair it. Soon thereafter she was diagnosed with diabetes, an illness she successfully manages to this day.
In late 2002 her beloved husband was diagnosed with cancer, and Zosia struggled to care for him, given her limited mobility and ill health. She lost her job and was forced to go on disability, caring for Mel until his death in 2003. Even that could not keep this indomitable woman down – she ran for nomination for a seat in BC’s provincial legislature in 2004 and continued her lifelong volunteer work helping others.
Zosia’s trials were not yet over. In 2005 she was diagnosed with breast cancer and suffered through surgery and chemotherapy. She was offered a job and – unbelievably, still on chemo – wrote and passed her licensing exams to become a health plans broker and consultant. A year later, she was earning enough income to get off disability and works today from her home, even winning her company’s “Top Individual Sales” award in 2007.
“You can’t control what life gives you,” Zosia says, “but you can control how you respond to it. Never give up. Believe in yourself. Accept help if you need it. There are a lot of people who love you and want to help you. Let them, and thank them.”
Zosia is an amazing woman, and we at Coast are honoured to have her as our 2008 Courage To Come Back recipient in the Medical category.
Photo credit: Jon Murray, The Province
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Debbie Sesula - Mental Health category
 April 1, 2008 - Debbie Sesula of White Rock has been named as the 2008 Courage To Come Back Award recipient in the Mental Health category. Recipients in the remaining five categories will be announced weekly leading up to the awards gala on Thursday, May 8th.
Debbie first began suffering frightening symptoms while nearing completion of her Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology. A very outgoing and bubbly person, she became withdrawn, depressed and scared, obsessed with ending her life. Struggling daily to complete her education and “be normal” Debbie began to inflict tiny scratches on herself to ease her emotional pain. Good days were followed by bad days – she found herself losing touch with reality, once hearing cars telling her to
end her life. Finally, she attempted suicide. A year-long cycle of hospitalization, medication, release,
re-hospitalization, and new medications began. Debbie decided to fight the illness, the depression
anxiety and psychosis, and refused to give in. She challenged all her symptoms one by one and
graduated with her degree. The fight was far from over. Debbie would land a job, only to quit it, convinced the staff were “after
her.” She enrolled in an employment program and learned computer skills, all the while increasing
her self-harming. Eventually, through the help of a counselor, Debbie gained control over her selfharm. She learned new ways to cope with her feelings, to challenge her thoughts, and gradually
gained control over mental illness instead of letting it control her. She obtained her Reality Therapy
Certification and later developed a program to teach others how to take control of their own recovery
– a program that has been consistently running, with a waiting list, since 2002. “I am extremely grateful to Coast for recognizing the positive aspects and contributions of people facing adversities,” Debbie says. To others who are struggling, “Don’t give up on yourself. There is help, there is hope – reach out!” Debbie has overcome her illness with flying colours and stands as a beacon of hope to others facing
similar struggles. She is currently the Coordinator of the Peer Support Programs at Vancouver
Community Mental Health Services and Fraser South Health; Provincial Coordinator of BRIDGES
Support and Education Program through BC Schizophrenia Society; a WRAP recovery-oriented
program Facilitator; and she teaches Consumers In Action, a leadership skills training program. If
that were not enough, Debbie was recently accepted into the Masters in Leadership program at
Royal Roads University. Photo credit: Jason Payne, The Province
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