Meet Bridget Gum
Our latest Spotlight Story comes from the East Coast of the United States, and this is not just any addition into our Spotlight Story Program, but from a special young woman who has worked her way up through InvisiYouth’s programming. 18-year-old Bridget Gum because as a volunteer with InvisiYouth during her senior year of high school, and transitioned into our international leadership program, Global Brand Leaders as a GBL-Ambassador. Bridget has fused her experience living with a rare autoimmune disorder called Transverse Myelitis and her love of advocacy, into a great future for her work as she’s now a student at Rider University with aims of helping others.
My name is Bridget Gum and on November 11, 2002 I was found in my crib completely limp. Since I was a seven month old baby, it made it very challenging to diagnose me because I couldn’t communicate loss of sensation or ability to move, or even if I lost control of my bowel and bladder capabilities.
After six months of living in and out of hospitals and nearly dying a couple of times, I was finally diagnosed with a rare auto-immune disorder called Transverse Myelitis. This disorder attacked my immune system as well as my spinal cord, at the C5-C8 level of my spine, right around what the doctors call “Hangman’s Noose”, which is called that because most people lose the ability to breath and die.
Thankfully, for reasons no one can explain, my spinal cord injury is incomplete, which means my sensory and motor level doesn’t just stop at one level.
As a very young child, I was in therapy for an extremely long time so as to hopefully regain as much function as possible, however, I was only able to have movement and sensation from my shoulders up. Finally, when it was time, I was allowed to go to preschool. I was so excited. A couple of years ago, I found a comic that summarized my experience perfectly: a girl who uses a wheelchair at a specially designed desk for a wheelchair completely oblivious to the fact she was different.
My family treated me normally so when I went to school, I was made aware of how different I was. I grew up in an almost entirely able-bodied community, until I was in fourth grade. I finally went to a family summer camp made entirely for others with my disability, which was life-changing.
It was the first time I was with others like me, and not just being sick in a hospital together, actually doing fun activities. This was when I decided to educate myself on disabled culture and to become an advocate, for both myself and others. I began to work with my therapists to become more independent and began to work with my school to get better services and more appropriate accommodations. In eighth grade, I was diagnosed with epilepsy, completely unrelated to my previous disability.
The memory reset and medications from the seizures completely changed me and how I saw the world. I then became more open and helpful to others because I saw how helpful other people were to me and I really wanted to return that favor to the world.
Throughout my many years of hospitalizations and living with this disability, I learned a lot of responsibility and maturity, which is almost a requirement for living with a disability if you want independence.
These qualities often seep into my personal life to the point where my friends call me the “Mom” of the group because I’m always helping people, listen to their problems, and I’m prepared for every situation, often in case of emergency.
While the lives of people with disabilities are very different, I wish we could live in a world where it doesn’t have to be.
Of course there will always be an element of medical needs that is different than an able-bodied person, I hope that others with disabilities won’t have to fight for accommodations or be surprised and overly grateful when someone makes you feel like an equal, and not someone who needs to be helped or as a burden.
Now, I have graduated high school and will be attending Rider University as a member of their honors program. And I have joined InvisiYouth Charity’s leadership program, Global Brand Leaders. I’m so excited about being a GBL-Ambassador for InvisiYouth because I want to help people and make the world a better place for everyone who lives in it, especially those with disabilities, and this gives me a platform to do that.