It has been over a year since blind explorer Mark Pollock fell from a second floor window, resulting in his becoming paralysed. Mark’s recovery has been like most things in his life to date: a huge challenge.
The road ahead for Mark will be long and his convalescence could cost in the order of millions. With limited means of support, his friends have therefore decided to assist him by raising much needed funds via The Mark Pollock Trust.
Earlier this year, Mark spent some time in the USA at ‘Project Walk’: a centre that aims to provide an improved quality of life for people with spinal cord injuries through intense exercise-based recovery programmes, education, support and encouragement. It is hoped that The Mark Pollock Trust will be able to raise sufficient funds to continue similar Project Walk-type therapy sessions here in Ireland.
The late Christopher Reeve’s limited recovery from complete paralysis was credited to a similar exercise regime. The Epoch Timesspoke with Mr Piers White, a friend of Mark’s, and the head fundraiser for The Mark Pollock Trust.
Mr White explained that the reason the trust was set up was because of the thought process around “what was going to happen to Mark when he was finally released from hospital, and how he would manage with the considerable cost - not the kind of money that Mark or his family have at their disposal,” said Mr White.
“It is estimated that a paraplegic will need monies in the order of millions of euro during their lifetime to lead any sort of independent life,” said Mr White.
“So a group of his friends got together, and decided to set up a Trust with the idea of raising money to help Mark; to assist him in his rehabilitation, and for him to also lead an independent life.”
Mr White said: “As far as I’m aware, the standard procedure in Ireland for the HSE is that someone in Mark’s situation will get one year’s rehabilitation.
“The reality is that when you go and have rehabilitation following an accident, it tends to be very basic things such as a car transfer, a transfer to your bed, to help and assist you. However, there is no rehabilitation toward the thought process that you might be able to walk again. That you could build up to completely survive on your own again … its the bare essentials that you get,” explained Mr White.
Mark’s situation is compounded by the fact that he is both blind and paralysed. “The blindness will obviously hinder him an awful lot, someone that’s blind can tap their way down the street, somebody that is a paraplegic can wheel themselves down a street, but if you are blind and in a wheel chair it is going to be very difficult,” said Mr White.
Earlier this year, Mark spent some time in the USA at ‘Project Walk’: a centre that aims to provide an improved quality of life for people with spinal cord injuries through intense exercise-based recovery programmes, education, support and encouragement. It is hoped that The Mark Pollock Trust will be able to raise sufficient funds to continue similar Project Walk-type therapy sessions here in Ireland.
The late Christopher Reeve’s limited recovery from complete paralysis was credited to a similar exercise regime. The Epoch Timesspoke with Mr Piers White, a friend of Mark’s, and the head fundraiser for The Mark Pollock Trust.
Mr White explained that the reason the trust was set up was because of the thought process around “what was going to happen to Mark when he was finally released from hospital, and how he would manage with the considerable cost - not the kind of money that Mark or his family have at their disposal,” said Mr White.
“It is estimated that a paraplegic will need monies in the order of millions of euro during their lifetime to lead any sort of independent life,” said Mr White.
“So a group of his friends got together, and decided to set up a Trust with the idea of raising money to help Mark; to assist him in his rehabilitation, and for him to also lead an independent life.”
Mr White said: “As far as I’m aware, the standard procedure in Ireland for the HSE is that someone in Mark’s situation will get one year’s rehabilitation.
“The reality is that when you go and have rehabilitation following an accident, it tends to be very basic things such as a car transfer, a transfer to your bed, to help and assist you. However, there is no rehabilitation toward the thought process that you might be able to walk again. That you could build up to completely survive on your own again … its the bare essentials that you get,” explained Mr White.
Mark’s situation is compounded by the fact that he is both blind and paralysed. “The blindness will obviously hinder him an awful lot, someone that’s blind can tap their way down the street, somebody that is a paraplegic can wheel themselves down a street, but if you are blind and in a wheel chair it is going to be very difficult,” said Mr White.
Mark Pollock Trust Long-term Goal
“Initially, from the Trust’s point of view, our primary concern is Mark,” said Mr White. Mark has expressed his wishes to help others by perhaps, at some time in the future, setting up a Project Walk in Ireland, and this is something the Trust is looking into as a long-term objective.
“We are trying to raise an unbelievable amount of money, once we raise sufficient funds to look after Mark then the idea would be to potentially assist other people.
“What we are doing with the Trust is, we are looking for people to do their own individual events, such as run a marathon or hold a quiz night, then we would ask you to do it in the name of the Mark Pollock Trust.
“If you feel you cannot organise an event, then we would like you to partake in some of the events that the Trust will be organising (www.MarkPollockTrust.org) over the next while,” said Mr White.
“One of the big things that we have organised is a fun run in Dublin in November (date pending council approval) that will occur at night, called ‘Run for Mark in the Dark”: we want you to run, walk or crawl it for Mark, and it’s a night-time run to tie in with Mark’s blindness,” explained Mr White, who added that if you can’t organise an event yourself, then there are other options to help.
“We would love you to contact the Trust ([email protected]) and donate some time or even a venue that we or someone else can hold an event in Mark’s name, or any assistance whatsoever, we really want as many people to get involved as possible.”
“Mark is such an inspirational person: he has gone through blindness before and he survived that, he has inspired so many people; we as his friends are trying to do something for him so he can survive and lead an independent life.”
According to Mr White, Mark is desperately frustrated as it’s been over a year since his accident, and he is still in hospital and unsure of his future. However, the fact that people are doing events such as iron man’s and blogathons in his name gives him encouragement. “He is greatly appreciative and greatly encouraged by all the support he is receiving, from people that aren’t necessarily very close friends.”
“These are people who have seen him on the Late Late Show or heard him on the radio, and they have just been so inspired by him that they want to go and do something in his name; that encourages him [Mark] an awful lot. It gives him hope for the future... these things help him massively in his spirits,” said Mr White.
“We are trying to raise an unbelievable amount of money, once we raise sufficient funds to look after Mark then the idea would be to potentially assist other people.
“What we are doing with the Trust is, we are looking for people to do their own individual events, such as run a marathon or hold a quiz night, then we would ask you to do it in the name of the Mark Pollock Trust.
“If you feel you cannot organise an event, then we would like you to partake in some of the events that the Trust will be organising (www.MarkPollockTrust.org) over the next while,” said Mr White.
“One of the big things that we have organised is a fun run in Dublin in November (date pending council approval) that will occur at night, called ‘Run for Mark in the Dark”: we want you to run, walk or crawl it for Mark, and it’s a night-time run to tie in with Mark’s blindness,” explained Mr White, who added that if you can’t organise an event yourself, then there are other options to help.
“We would love you to contact the Trust ([email protected]) and donate some time or even a venue that we or someone else can hold an event in Mark’s name, or any assistance whatsoever, we really want as many people to get involved as possible.”
“Mark is such an inspirational person: he has gone through blindness before and he survived that, he has inspired so many people; we as his friends are trying to do something for him so he can survive and lead an independent life.”
According to Mr White, Mark is desperately frustrated as it’s been over a year since his accident, and he is still in hospital and unsure of his future. However, the fact that people are doing events such as iron man’s and blogathons in his name gives him encouragement. “He is greatly appreciative and greatly encouraged by all the support he is receiving, from people that aren’t necessarily very close friends.”
“These are people who have seen him on the Late Late Show or heard him on the radio, and they have just been so inspired by him that they want to go and do something in his name; that encourages him [Mark] an awful lot. It gives him hope for the future... these things help him massively in his spirits,” said Mr White.
“Functional rehab gets you out of your bed and into a wheelchair, the long term goal is the innovative rehabilitation ie project walk which will get Mark out of a wheelchair,” concluded Mr White.