Q&A: Rick Hansen, Social Entrepreneur

Q: Is Vancouver friendlier to disabled people than it was 20 years ago, when you rolled into B.C. Place after more than two years and 40,000 kilometres of wheeling around the world?
A: Absolutely. Just think of the curb cuts, parking spots, all the new infrastructure and transit and buildings that are way more accessible. YVR is one of the most accessible airports in the world.

Q: And is the outlook better for a teenager whose spinal column is severed than when you had your accident?
A: Twenty years ago, about 30 percent of people who had spinal cord injuries regained some limited sort of function or movement below the point of the injury. Today it’s more like 70 percent. Look at Mike Harcourt. He still has issues from his injury, but he’s up and around and doing great things. Twenty years ago he probably would have had the same outcome as Sam Sullivan.

Q: What do you think of people who object to stem-cell research on moral grounds?
A: They have a right to their views, but in the long term I think those views will become irrelevant. We’re getting better at harvesting cells from skin, from nasal membrane, not just from fetal tissue—which is where the moral objections come in. So I think the whole issue will gradually go away.

Q: Did you know Christopher Reeve?
A: I met him in Toronto and we worked on a couple of projects together. He was an amazing man. I don’t know that any individual has ever done more for the cause of spinal cord research. You’re a Paralympic champion, you performed one of the great athletic endurance feats in history, and through your foundation you’ve raised $178-million.

Q: What’s your greatest accomplishment?
A: My family. Amanda and I have three wonderful daughters.

Q: What’s your greatest regret?
A: That Stan Strong, a mentor of mine, didn’t get to see the men’s and women’s wheelchair basketball teams win world championships, which they both did last year. That was Stan’s dream, and I wish he’d lived long enough to see it come true.

Q: When you dream, are you in a wheelchair?
A: My dreams are usually wild combinations of adventures and fantastical things that don’t quite make sense. Mostly I’m just sort of a presence in the dream, without a real sense of whether I’m in a chair or not. Actually, I sometimes dream I’m walking—with braces, but without crutches.

Q: Would you arm-wrestle me, so I can see how strong your upper body is?
A: Sorry, but I don’t do that. These arms have to last me the rest of my life, and I can’t afford a strain or a pull or anything that might hinder me. I hurt my shoulder on the second day of the Man in Motion tour, and if you think no legs is a handicap, try no legs and one arm.
—Gary Stephen Ross

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