Cerebral palsy is the most prevalent disability among children.
Every hour, a baby is born with cerebral palsy. Most inflicted with it face a lifetime of physical struggles, including walking.
This September, WGN and many other stations are walking to raise awareness and fund research for cerebral palsy.
“The best way to describe the way cerebral palsy feels is it feels like my legs are sling shots that are pulled back and never fully release,” said Jocelyn Cohen.
Cohen grew up believing that somehow the steps would get easier with time, never imagining her cerebral palsy would become more crippling each passing year.
“It takes three to five times the energy to move through the world with cerebral palsy as it does to move through the world without it,” Cohen said.
Despite that, Cohen and others consider themselves lucky to be able to walk at all.
“I grew up with a younger brother who has cerebral palsy,” Brooke Harrleson said. “He cannot walk or speak the words he feels. He struggles to make it through the day,” Cohen said.
18 million people around the world have cerebral palsy with 1 million Americans affected.
“Steptember” is a virtual campaign that asks participants to take 10,000 steps a day for the entire month of September. Every dollar pledged will go towards support and research for those living with cerebral palsy.
“One of our research areas is thought-to-speech technology,” Cohen said. “Brain interface technology is a chip that is implanted at the surface of the brain that helps turn intentional thought into immediate speech for someone who is unable to say their words traditionally.”
“Steptember builds funding with each step forward.
If you’d like to join the “Steptember” campaign, click here.
