“There is a lesson in everything.”
Benveet “Bean” Gill’s story serves up a dose of reality like you’ve never heard before.
In her 20s, Gill was working as an X-ray technologist in a cardiac catheterization lab. But, in 2012, when she turned 30, everything changed. She left an abusive relationship, her dad left her family, and, during vacation, a virus paralyzed her from the waist down.
While relaxing in a hotel room with close friends, she felt a sudden, stabbing pain in her spine. “The pain lasted only a few minutes, and then I couldn’t move my right leg. I was paralyzed within 10 minutes.”
Multiple neurologists told Gill a virus was likely to blame, and she would regain full use of her legs within weeks.
After several months of no progress, Bean was forced to come to grips with her new reality. A once athletic young woman who enjoyed modeling, kickboxing, and weightlifting, she struggled with betrayal by her own body. She couldn’t roll over, sit up, or get out of bed without help. She was forced to find her way through an inaccessible society, all the while living with paralysis and learning how to love herself – disability and all.
“My life was flipped upside down. I hated everything about me. I hated my life.”
Bean Gill, Inclusion Warrior, Runway Model, Paralysis Recovery Pioneer (speakersgroup.com)