Great story from the Ottawa Citizen about Stittsville’s Tysen Lefebvre:
Despite Tysen Lefebvre’s physical challenges, the 15-year-old has never backed down from achieving his goals. These days, he’s seeing an all-too familiar Canadian dream come true. Lefebvre has Pfeiffer Syndrome Type 2, a rare genetic disorder that affects his skull, facial features and limbs.
Last year, the Capital City Condors hockey club — geared towards those with intellectual and/or physical disabilities — approached Lefebvre and his parents, Linda and Scott, to drop the puck at the Special Hockey International tournament the team was hosting. The club reached out after seeing Lefebvre’s Facebook page aimed at raising $1 million — or granting 100 wishes — for the Make-a-Wish Foundation.
Lefebvre became an honorary Condor with his own jersey, but his dream was bigger than that. He wanted to play hockey. His doctor, however, couldn’t give him the green light to skate out of fear Lefebvre would fall or be contacted in any way that would be seriously harmful…
The club did some digging and soon learned about the Kaye Trainer, an aluminium apparatus that could possibly help people like Lefebvre skate. The device — a suspension system with a support harness attached to a lightweight aluminium frame on wheels — was originally created to place over a treadmill, which would give people mobile support as they worked out.
