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Three Raleigh lives changed in an instant. Here’s how they’re finding their way forward.
This August, Raleigh experienced a tragic loss when Hayes Barton Cafe & Dessertery owner Frank Ballard passed away from pneumonia after recently suffering a spinal cord injury from a fall down the stairs.
Ballard’s injury was certainly unexpected—but spinal cord injuries affect more than 18,000 Americans each year, according to the National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center. And when paralysis is part of the aftermath, independence takes on a whole new meaning.
“These are things that could happen to anybody, at any time,” says Sandy Bridger, executive director of paralysis recovery and fitness center NextStep Raleigh.
Adding insult to injury, finding specialized care can mean traveling hundreds or even thousands of miles. But in Raleigh, NextStep is working to close that gap—and help people reclaim pieces of everyday life along the way.
The nonprofit’s roots trace back to 2015, when Whiskey Kitchen co-owner Michael Thor was in an accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down. For three years, he worked toward recovery at Atlanta’s Shepherd Center, but he couldn’t stay away forever.
That’s when his mom, Karen, decided to open NextStep Raleigh, to give her son—and other paralyzed locals—the kind of activity-based therapy they need.
The Oak City outpost is one of 10 NextStep locations serving people whose paralysis stems not just from spinal cord injuries, but other causes like multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy and even traumatic brain injuries. In step with LA’s OG model, the Raleigh gym uses activity-based therapy to strengthen clients and support recovery over time.
It’s easy to assume that once you lose motion somewhere, you can’t get any bit of it back. That’s what Bridger herself thought when she came to NextStep 21 months ago. But she’s since learned that the nervous system has a remarkable ability to adapt and reorganize—a process known as neuroplasticity.
“Neurons are the social butterflies of the human body,” she analogizes. “If you give them the right environment, they’ll form new pathways to each other.”
That’s why NextStep’s therapy is based in movement—from guided, weight-bearing exercises to assisted standing or walking to electrical stimulation designed to activate muscles and encourage the nervous system to forge those pathways.
And it isn’t one-size-fits-all. Sam Pasnon, a certified exercise physiologist and NextStep trainer for six years, says that while the same principles of neuroplasticity apply, workouts become increasingly tailored to each individual’s needs.
Just like the regimen is different for each client, so are their goals. For some, that may be walking again. For others, seemingly smaller movements—pulling up sheets, picking up vitamins or swiping on lipstick—mean something bigger: getting back to themselves.
Car Crash to Confidence
In 2023, Rahman Mateen was sitting passenger-side on the way back from a party when the driver, who was drunk, lost control of the car. “We hit some trees, then the car ricocheted and rolled seven times,” he recalls.
The crash left him with a spinal cord injury that paralyzed most of his body, minus his arms. His PT at Duke was the first to recommend NextStep—and when he learned of her passing last year, he decided to take the plunge.
In the year that Mateen’s been at NextStep, he’s seen serious progress. While he can’t unclench his hands (yet), he can do more with them, like brush his hair and teeth. What’s more: he says he’s also starting to get sensation back in his legs.
But perhaps the biggest gain of all, he says, is “just being able to look at myself in the mirror and have that same love for myself I did before my accident.” Now, Mateen’s back to hanging out with friends, taking trips and even starting his own small business, The Best of Life Candles.
Coma to Campus
In his second semester at the University of Colorado Boulder, Owen Markham skipped class to hit the slopes. He was barreling down the mountain at nearly 60 mph when he collided headfirst with a tree—and, then, he was lights out for three months.
He had suffered a traumatic brain injury that, when he awoke, left him with balance issues, primarily affecting his left side.
He doesn’t remember exactly how his family found NextStep—but what he does remember is his progression over his two years there. Starting in a wheelchair, Markham graduated to a walker, then a cane—until he was walking completely on his own.
Now, he’s returned to school—this time at UNC Chapel Hill—and spends most of his days walking to and from his psychology classes. “I’m trying my best not to deny that it happened, but to live as if it didn’t,” he says.
Wheelchair to Hiking Trails
On New Year’s Eve 2024, Corrie Cooper and her partner were riding a tandem bicycle when a car hit them from behind. The driver fled the scene, and Cooper, who took the brunt of the impact, suffered multiple fractures in her lower spine that paralyzed her from the waist down.
“Before my injury, I was an athlete,” she stresses. “I was used to exerting my body every single day, and I needed an environment that was going to give me that.”
After insurance stopped covering her rehab, she found NextStep online—and funds raised through a GoFundMe organized by her sister helped cover the cost, allowing her to continue therapy in her own city and progress from a wheelchair to forearm crutches that help her regulate her gait.
Though she left after a year and a half to focus on other therapies, she says NextStep was integral to her recovery, helping her build endurance and giving her an environment she looked forward to being in every week. Now, Cooper’s back on the trails she loves, hiking, backpacking and finding joy in nature again.
Stand With NextStep
NextStep’s annual Stand Together Gala is the org’s biggest fundraiser of the year. This year’s event, held in partnership with Aaron Lambert of Boatman Spirits Co., brings together local bites and drinks, an after-hours disco, and stories from the people NextStep serves—all to support another year of operations and scholarships for clients who otherwise couldn’t afford it. Nov. 1, Boatman Spirits Co., nextstepfitness.org/events-2
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