My journey back on my feet

Hi, I am Gert-Jan Oskam.

In 2007 I finally graduated and together with 2 friends I went to Australia and South-East Asia for 1 year of backpacking. This was of course a very exciting year and I after this trip I was addicted to travelling. I found this in my job and travelled to many more countries where I not only worked hard, but also enjoyed the local food and beautiful places these countries had. In 2009 I was also very happy to buy my first house, which was a complete renovation project of more than 2 years, which I passioned fulfilled together with my father. In the meantime I was asked to stay a long period in China to support the local technical staff. And in the beginning of 2011 I moved to Beijing, for 6 months.

20th November 2011 my life changed from an independent jong man, living in China for a very exciting job to a completely dependent paralyzed person.

Unfortunately 20th November 2011 my life changed from an independent man, living in China for a very exciting job to a completely dependent paralyzed person.

That day I was on a bicycle on the streets of Beijing and not knowing what happened I woke up in the hospital where they told me that I broke my neck and that I was paralyzed. Directly after this moment, I started planning my trip back home to The Netherlands where I believed that doctors in The Netherlands could fix me.

Finally, after 5 days I arrived at a Dutch hospital where they directly told me, you will never walk again.. a big setback, but I never lost faith and my long journey started.

In 2013 I stood up for the first time and today after years of training, 2 clinical trial (including the BSI project in Lausanne), 5 more surgeries (updates), countless kilometers of traveling and a total of 3 years away from home I reach a point where I can make steps behind a walker.

The whole journey so far was very demanding on my social and private life. Therefore I will build a dedicated training room in my garden, where I can train close to my loved ones and ensure that travel hours will be training hours. With the right training I believe I will reach a point where I will spend my days behind a walker instead of sitting in my wheelchair.

Fundings will be used to buy equipment, but more importantly to modify and design equipment that can ensure I reach my goals. I want to start with designing and building a walking frame allowing more functional tasks and training upright.