Eventually this led to the first opportunity of meeting with a fellow BMDer face to face. The first was Gord who happened to be one of the first people to make a comment on the My Becker's Story blog. To my surprise I learned that he actually lived about an hour away. Eventually we had a chance to meet up. This was during our opportunity to take a closer look at a first of it's kind factory built accessible vehicle known as the MV-1. It turned out to be a great day and it was great to meet face to face for the first time. It sure was a great experience as we both learned that we had a lot in common. This marked my first time ever meeting someone else living with Becker's Muscular Dystrophy.
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| Durham Region Walk for Muscular Dystrophy |
Shortly after this thanks to the My Becker's Story Facebook page I was able to connected with another BMDer who is also named Brad. It's always fun when two people who share the same name get together. Because when someone says Brad you both say yes. Anyways when I learned he lived just over an hour away I knew it was only a matter of time before we met up. With Brad living so close one year we actually met up at the Durham Region Walk for Muscular Dystrophy. It was an amazing day having the opportunity to meet face to face. Again we learned we had a lot in common and really enjoyed meeting up on what turned out to be a great day supporting Muscular Dystrophy Canada. Eventually I was lucky enough to connect with someone locally by the name of Sanjin who only lives about 20 minutes away. When we both learned we lived this close to each other we knew we had to meet up. So we set up a meeting at a local Starbucks and just like every other meeting with fellow BMDer's we learned we had a lot in common. Sure many things related to living with Becker's Muscular Dystrophy but other things as well - like our love for cars. Surprising to me many of us living with BMD have a passion for car an even racing. Many of us also share a great sense of humor. It was amazing meeting up with someone who lives locally as we now are good friends.
Just recently about a week ago I had what I like to call the opportunity of a lifetime. It was the chance at meeting a fellow BMDer who was visiting from the United Kingdom by the name of Steve Davies. You see opportunities like this don't come along that often so we had to meet. At first we were going to meet up at Gord's for a BBQ but due to it being a long weekend and the kick off of the race season for Laps 4 MD drivers unfortunately I couldn't make it. Thankfully though we were able to meet up for lunch at a local restaurant. It turned out to be another great experience. Getting to meet Steve and his wife was amazing. The nicest people I have ever met and I know if they lived locally we would hang out a lot. As you can see in the picture found at the top of this posting Sanjin joined us and we all had a great time. Maybe one day I will have to consider visiting the UK, as I am sure it would be fun meeting with everyone I know who lives there.
So if you ever have a chance at meeting someone else living with Becker's Muscular Dystrophy I say do it as you won't regret it. In the end it's nice to know we are not alone and that there are others out there who understand the issues we face.