BLOCK ISLAND, R.I. (MyFoxBoston.com) - Later this month a man will set out on a 40-mile swim around Aquidneck Island, the largest island in the Narragansett Bay to raise money for a charity that hits close to home.
The fact that Trent Theroux can even get back in the water is making this mission even more impressive.
Theroux was paralyzed from the waist down after a boating accident 13 years ago.
“I was kayaking and i was run over by a motorboat. The motorboat propellers cut me, they severed all the major muscles on the left side of my back and it left me paralyzed,” he said.
But he wasn't about to let the life-changing crash get the best of him.
So he went to work, even while still in his hospital bed at Spaulding Rehab.
“I made a list of things I wanted to accomplish with my life and first on my list was to walk again,” he said.
But then he says he came up with some more exotic ideas
“Run a marathon, climb a skyscraper, do the Iron Man, and the last one on the list was to do an unprecedented ocean swim,” he said.
That culminated in Theroux’s swim from Point Judith, Rhode Island out to Block Island 3 years ago, raising money for Rise Above Paralysis.
His next swim, the one around Aquidneck Island, will be longer and he hopes to raise more money to help paraplegics get fitted for a car that can suit their needs.
“Houses become prisons sometimes and an adaptive vehicle giveaway program, and I watched a person go up and accept the car, and it was like they won the lottery,” he said.
It costs anywhere between $1,000 and $10,000 to outfit a car or truck to make it handicap accessible, so his $50,000 goal will go a long way.
“It’s one thing to lose your independence in terms of walking and getting around, and now you have to use a wheelchair or something else to get around and then factor in not having transportation,” he said.
Theroux says the swim around the island will take 20 hours, but it will be worth it in the end.
The swim will happen at the end of the month, Sept. 26.
Trent will be training until it's time to get in the bay.
He told us today you're welcome to follow him along during the day or heckle him from shore.
Cox Media Group
