Life and good health are blessings that go unrecognized and unappreciated by most of us. We go through each day with very little thought of how much of a gift it is to perform mundane tasks such as standing on our feet without aid, walking effortlessly, taking a leak, or even being able to sit.
Baffour Awuah Tabury was 23 years old, and in his final year at the University of Cape Coast when he lost the ability to perform the above mentioned tasks – tasks most of us give little consideration to.
An accident in 2007 which caused an injury to his spinal cord, was all it took for an able-bodied young man to become confined to his bed, and for 10 years, Baffour has been on a quest to rise up and walk again.
Paralyzed from his waist down, he initially lost control of his bowel functions until he sought treatment in India in April, 2016. Coming up with the funds to undergo the treatment was herculean; it would have been impossible without the goodwill of people.
From going to one physician to the other, from this pastor to that ‘man of God’, there’s nothing Baffour’s mother has not done to see her son walk again.
“The pain in my waist at times, is like I’m being cut with a chainsaw,” Baffour says, and shakes his head. “I can barely sleep at night,” he adds.
In total, Baffour’s mother – just a trader, has spent in excess of GHc 300,000 to see her son walk again. She has sold personal belongings, and even borrowed money to see a son who was on his way to fulfill his purpose on earth, regain the ability to walk again.
When there is hope, giving up is totally out of the question. This is why even after 10 years of his paralysis, Baffour is not giving up the fight to walk again.
An intensive physiotherapy which consists of Locomotor Training, Functional Electronic Simulation Therapy, Balance Training, and Weight Bearing Training at a physiotherapy center in Orlando, Florida will enable Baffour restore his denervated muscles and make it possible for him to stand on his own and walk again.
However, Baffour cannot do it on his own – he needs our help.
Raising GHc 87,000 for the intensive physiotherapy is an amount way beyond Baffour and his mother; they are counting on us, and it certainly will be inhumane for us to look away as Baffour goes through his time of need.
“Non nobis solum nati sumus” – a quote from one of ancient Rome’s greatest orators, lawyers and scholars – Marcus Tullius Cicero, which when translated from Latin to English, means, not for ourselves alone are we born.
Let’s help Baffour walk again!
~ Godwin Kpade
Photo Credit: George Duah
