The Courage To Come Back Awards
2012 Recipients
Angie Lohr of Kelowna has been named the 2012 Courage To Come Back Award recipient in the Addictions category. Read more about Angie>
Margaret Benson of North Vancouver has been named the 2012 Courage To Come Back Award reciepient in the Medical category. Read more about Margaret>
Sandra Yuen Mackay of Vancouver has been named the 2012 Courage To Come Back Award recipient in the Mental Health category. Read more about Sandra>
Kamal Dhillon of Surrey has been named the 2012 Courage To Come Back Award recipient in the Social Adversity category. Read more about Kamal>
Rebecka Hill of Kelowna has been named the 2012 Courage To Come Back Award recipient in the Youth category. Read more about Rebecka
Recipient in the Mental Health category: Sandra Yuen MacKay
“Who are you and why are you doing this to me?!” the terrifying words were scrawled in large black letters on the front porch of 14-year-old Sandra Yuen's home. It was a desperate cry for help from the depths of her paranoia and despair. This Canadian-born Chinese had become ill with psychosis that year. Sandra saw trespassers outside her house; voices called her foul names. She thought she was being constantly followed, and that surveillance equipment was built into the walls of her home. She was convinced others were out to destroy her but told no one.
Reaching a breaking point, Sandra lashed out in uncontrollable anger, believing others could read her mind and that she was the victim of a grand psychiatric experiment. Finally, completely immersed in this frightening world, she was hospitalized for the first time – it wouldn’t be the last. At the age of 15, she was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.
Three months later, taking medication that only partially controlled her symptoms, she returned to high school. After further hospitalizations, she completed a bachelor's degree in art history, worked for nine years and married a kind, supportive spouse. However, she still was tormented by recurrent delusions and severe medication side effects. She struggled on.
When Sandra’s grandmother died, her world came crashing down again. She stopped taking her medication, believing she was cured and on her way to stardom. She became increasingly hostile even to her family. Hospitalized again, this time she was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, an illness characterized by recurring episodes of elevated or depressed mood with severe distortions in perception.
With fierce determination and the aid of family, friends and mental health professionals, she transformed by building confidence and improving objectivity. She stabilized on a new medication regime, exercised and looked after herself, made new friends and taught creative writing. She rediscovered her love of art and exhibited her paintings. She started publishing articles and speaking in public about her recovery. Her work supervisor, a mental health professional, says “Sandra taught me how it felt to experience mental illness in a way that allowed me to see all the facets of her complicated disease and the person she is.”
Sharing her life’s story has turned out to be one of the greatest gifts this talented artist, writer and public speaker has. Sandra wholly engages herself to connect with others and shares her experiences eloquently, with contagious good spirits. Many who suffer from mental illness, and many parents of those who suffer, have found inspiration and solace in Sandra’s words. Not only has she dealt successfully with a profoundly life-altering illness, but she enthusiastically continues to spread her message of hope.
About winning the 2012 Courage To Come Back Award, Sandra MacKay says, “This is truly a milestone in my life. To be acknowledged is an honour. I hope that others will be encouraged by my story that with determination, insight and support, recovery is possible.”
Click here to listen to Sandra's story on News1130.
Photograph by: Jenelle Schneider , PNG 
Click here to read the full Province article.
Recipient in the Addictions category: Angie Lohr
On the surface, Angie Lohr had an uneventful middle-class Manitoba upbringing with two loving parents. As a teen, she dabbled in recreational marijuana use but by her mid-twenties she was focused: her career was on the rise, she was married to her longtime boyfriend, and they were planning a family.
Two years into their marriage, her husband started exhibiting signs of mental illness. He rapidly descended into full-blown bipolar disorder. After months of his cycling manias and black depressions, Angie asked him to leave. Heartbroken and confused, alone in their new home, she felt like she’d lost all her dreams.
One night a close friend offered her a new experience: “freebasing” (smoking) cocaine. Angie didn’t know anything about hard drugs and didn’t realize the danger she was in: she was instantly addicted. From that moment on, for nearly 14 years, cocaine abuse took Angie on a hellish trip through poverty, prostitution, crime and homelessness. She lost her job, her home and most of her friends. By 2001 she had escalated to intravenous drug use. Her habit reached $1,000/day. By then 41, she supported herself any way she could, with worse crimes and more prostitution. She stopped contacting family and friends. “Why should I?” she thought. “Life is hopeless, meaningless, worthless.” She thought about suicide every day.
Then one January morning in 2002, Angie had what she can only describe as a spiritual experience. The moment she opened her eyes that day she was aware of a ‘presence’ and felt hope for the first time in years. She didn’t want cocaine. A miracle had occurred and Angie was not going to ignore it.
Of course it wasn’t as easy as that, and Angie knew it. She entered Winnipeg’s Main Street Project Detox, where she was introduced to a 12-step program. She worked hard at making amends, including facing up to old criminal charges against her and paying reparations. She went through many hours of counselling to overcome the lingering traumas of the violent life she had been leading. Stronger every day in sobriety and faith, she began to look for chances to help others who were still working the streets and living with addictions. She went back to work and began volunteering, helping to raise $15M for street-outreach programs, speaking to high school students about drugs, and taking courses to learn more about the disease of addiction.
She remarried, and in 2008 Angie and her husband moved to Kelowna. Quantum Graphics and Consulting, where she had worked in Winnipeg, offered to employ her in Kelowna. Understanding that she needed to connect to her new community, Angie in typical fashion looked for a way to help others. A month after moving, she learned of two young women who had recovered from addiction and exited the sex trade: one night a week they went out on the streets, handing out small items to homeless, addicted, and sexually-exploited women. Angie knew she had to help.
For nearly 3 years, Angie has spearheaded the growth of HOPE Outreach (Helping Out People Exploited) from 3 to 80 volunteers doing street-level outreach 7 nights per week. In 2011, Angie and her good friend Kelly opened the House of HOPE, a safe house for women in addiction and exiting the sex trade. Clean 10 years now, she continues to advocate for these nearly-forgotten women, trying to pay forward the gift of recovery that has been given to her.
Click here to listen to Angie's story on News1130.
Photograph by: Jeff Bassett , For the Province
Click here to read the full Province article.
Recipient in the Medical category: Margaret Benson
In 1997, Margaret Benson decided to start a gratitude journal, although she didn’t have much to be grateful for. She had been diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at age 14 and given only one year to live. At 40 years old, she had already defied the odds, but over time her quality of life had, little by little, eroded. Now she was on a long waitlist to receive a double lung transplant. With every passing day, her strength ebbed. It didn’t look like her chance would arrive in time.
As a kind of legacy, in case an organ donor wasn’t found in time, Margaret started her journal. “Believe,” she wrote that first day. It was her mantra.
Margaret had been a school teacher, a profession she loved but had had to give up. “Teaching was all I ever wanted to do. Seeing the light of understanding dawn in my students’ eyes was the ultimate reward,” she says. She was happily married to Brian, her best friend and strongest supporter.
As Margaret’s world shrank, finally, word came that lungs were available. A devastated family, in their hour of grief, had honored their loved one’s wish to be an organ donor. After a 7½ hour delicate operation, Margaret lay in a hospital bed, a long recovery ahead of her.
“I made the decision then that the way to give back to my donor and donor family was to begin participating in athletic events. I wanted to prove that organ donation really works.”
Once back on her feet, Margaret used her precious ‘gift of life’ to raise awareness about transplantation.
Thirteen years after her operation, she is a multi-medal-winning athlete, marathoner, dragon boater, popular public speaker and outspoken advocate for those requiring a transplant. She is even back in the classroom, teaching one day a week.
Now, Margaret is a 2012 Courage To Come Back Award recipient in the Medical category.
She says, “I never go a day without thinking of my donor and donor’s family. I would never have had the chance to receive this Courage Award without their generosity. For those waiting for a transplant I say, ‘Believe’ and no matter what happens in your life never give up. I’m very fortunate and you can be too.”
Margaret still writes daily in her gratitude journal.
Click here to listen to Margaret's story on News1130.
Photograph by: Nick Procaylo, For the Province
Click here to read the full Province article.Recipient in the Social Adversity category: Kamal Dhillon
At 18, Kamal Dhillon first met the man who was to torture and abuse her for more than a decade: her future husband.
From a traditional South Asian family, the young woman wasn’t allowed even to speak to her betrothed until after her marriage, but like all young girls she dreamed of a blissful future with children, a home, a good life.
Kamal’s husband had other plans: for nearly 12 years, through the births of their 4 children, he verbally, sexually, mentally and physically abused her with such violence and regularity she came close to death several times. He wanted her to kill herself, once dousing her with kerosene and handing her a box of matches. Beatings, rape and sodomy were common place. He hanged her, electrocuted her, and tried to drown her off a pier, stomping on her knuckles and breaking one as she clung desperately to the edge.
Early in her marriage, his mother told her, “He is your god now. Everything that happens stays within the four walls of your home.” Her family also refused to help: they were afraid of his threats to kill them if Kamal left. She stayed.
In the early 90s, Kamal was finally able to leave her marital home alone, and later reuniting with her children. She was penniless, unemployed with a high-school education, nearly alone in the world. She lived for months in various women’s shelters. She went to college so she could provide a better living for her children, and slowly began to put together the good life she had dreamed of as a girl.
Today, Kamal facilitates workshops in BC and around the world for law enforcement officers, judges, nurses, high-school and college students, counselors, and front-line workers about recognizing and preventing domestic violence. She has spoken on television and radio. In 2009, she published a memoir, Black & Blue Sari, to help people understand that such abuse is not a private matter but a public epidemic that weakens, disempowers, and destroys families and societies.
The physical torture Kamal endured has resulted in many reconstructive operations. Her jaw was broken so severely she has metal implants that cause her great pain and must be replaced every five years. She lives with constant pain: temporomandibular disorder, fibromyalgia, nerve damage in her back, arms and legs.
Yet despite all, Kamal continues to speak out, to be a voice for the voiceless, an advocate for change. She has truly demonstrated a courage to come back.
About winning the 2012 Courage To Come Back Award, Kamal says, “My hope is that when victims of domestic abuse learn about my Courage Award, it will help them find their own courage to speak out. As long as you remain silent abuse will continue.”
Click here to listen to Kamal's story on News1130.
Photograph by: Nick Procaylo, For the Province
Click here to read the full Province article.
Recipient in the Physical Rehabilitation category: Michael Coss
Michael and Ann Coss were full of the joys of spring, driving with their baby twins on a road trip in May 2006. It was their first such journey together since the babies were born. In an instant the lives of the young family would change forever when the new dad inexplicably lost control of the van. While his wife and 6½ month-old daughter, Danielle, escaped essentially unharmed, Michael and his infant son Nathan were both severely injured. His son spent several weeks in BC Children’s Hospital recovering from head injuries but Michael’s brain trauma was much worse.
Michael spent nearly 7 months in a coma. Medical staff advised his horrified family that, if he lived, he would never be able to speak, eat, or move independently. Michael’s mom and dad, however, refused to accept this verdict on their son. They sold their house in Quebec to move closer and began advocating to get Michael access to private hyperbaric oxygen therapy. It was the beginning of a new chapter for Michael. The treatments worked and he began to come out of the coma. He still couldn’t speak and had to be fed by a tube, but slowly he began to display voluntary movements. A finger move here, a deliberate blink there. Even so, his chances of a full recovery were considered minimal.
Extensive daily physiotherapy provided gains but, even when he moved to an extended care facility he was completely dependent on caregivers, unable to perform the most basic functions or communicate properly. Nevertheless, his rehabilitation continued – as it does to this day – a rigorous regimen from dawn until after dusk. It involved physiotherapy, occupational therapy, kinesiology, neurochiropractic, acupuncture, naturopathy, water therapy, speech therapy, and equestrian therapy. He spent considerable time on a Lokomat – a $300,000 machine that uses robotic legs to assist someone who can’t walk to walk on a treadmill. Michael likens that time to a rebirth.
Traumatic brain injury is very challenging and individuals can get frustrated quickly and easily. Michael always shows great composure: his overriding desire is to be a good father to his two children and eventually walk hand-in-hand alone with his kids. Thanks to sheer grit, sweat and perseverance his recovery has been nothing short of miraculous. From absolute dependence and inability to communicate, Michael is now walking, talking, speaking publicly, and raising money for other causes. He has written a book, The Courage To Come Back: A triumph over TBI. In 2008, he raised the top amount in Canada for Rick Hansen Wheels in Motion event – nearly $25,000. And he has set up the Michael Coss Brain Injury Foundation to raise funds so children with TBI can access hyperbaric oxygen therapy.
In August 2011, Michael set a personal goal to walk one km unassisted. He signed up for the Terry Fox Langley Run in September 2011, enrolled a large group of friends, and walked the full kilometer, raising $5,000 for cancer research. On April 15th, he walked 2.5 km in the Vancouver Sun Run.
Michael is a hard worker, humorous, upbeat, enthusiastic, and a great motivator for others. Even though his own rehab and recovery requires extensive time, focus and energy, he still finds it within himself to seek ways of helping those in similar circumstances. He emerged from his tragic accident with purpose, commitment, a kind and generous heart and – always – a wonderful sense of humor.
About winning the 2012 Courage To Come Back Award, Michael says, “All things are possible when you believe.”
Click here to listen to Michael's story on News1130.Photograph by: Les Bazso , PNG
Click here to read the full Province article.
Recipient in the Youth category: Rebecka Hill
The Rebecka Hill of today is nothing like yesterday's child.
The Kelowna native has emerged from the dangerous twists and turns that her early journey took to become a strong, patient and nurturing young mother.
Her home life was chaotic and, in her early teens, Rebecka cycled in and out of foster care. However well-intentioned her caregivers were, foster placements never felt like a home, though. Sometimes loneliness and despair drove her to “camp” outdoors, sleeping in a tent. It felt safer somehow.
She developed a methamphetamine addiction, and soon turned to selling drugs to support her habit.
As is heartbreakingly common, Rebecka’s addiction led her deeper into crime. She was arrested for possession of a firearm, and once was in an accident involving a stolen vehicle. Luckily, she escaped a criminal record.
When she became pregnant, Rebecka determined to beat her addiction, and to break her family's cycle of poverty to ensure her child was not apprehended by the Ministry of Children and Family Development as she had been.
Rebecka’s parents had their own problems, so she was unable to return home. It would have been nearly impossible for her to get well in such a chaotic environment.
But get well she did, and in 2010 gave birth to a healthy baby girl she named Savannah. Today, she and her fiancé Zac both work diligently to provide a safe, loving and nurturing environment for their daughter.
Now 20, Rebecka is described by her peers as “strong, reflective, patient and understanding.” Rebecka says much of the credit for her remarkable turnaround is owed to the Okanagan Boys and Girls Clubs. Once a client, Rebecka returned there to mentor, teach and plan programming for youth at risk. Drawing on her own troubled past, she was able to provide support and act as a role model for others.
Click here to listen to Rebecka's story on News1130.Photograph by: Jeff Bassett
Click here to read the full Province article.