How To Help - Turning SCI into Advocacy

Ph.D Eric LeGrand is a former football defensive tackle that played college football at Rutgers University. Eric suffered a career ending cervical spinal cord injury while making a tackle in an October 2010 game. Eric is now tetraplegic, but this hasn’t slow him down. A few months after his injury, he resumed his college classes via Skype and also launched his sports broadcasting career as an analyst for Rutgers Football Radio Network. Eric has also become a much sought after motivational speaker.

The whole nation was a witness of Eric’s accident, leading to an outpouring of support. Humbled by this out pouring of support, Eric decided to form a charity, "Team LeGrand", whose proceeds go toward research to find a cure for paralysis and helping improve the quality of life for people with spinal cord injuries.

Last year Eric hosted “An Evening with Eric LeGrand”, which raised more than $1 million for spinal cord injury research. This year Eric will again host “An Evening with Eric LeGrand” and also the “Eric LeGrand Flag Football Tournament” and “A Walk to Believe” where he hopes to raise $2 million. “"Each year, it's been amazing," LeGrand said. "We just want to get to our goal of $2 million raised. Last year, these events put us over $1 million, so now we're working and grinding away to get to $2 million.”

“I believe Christopher Reeve started something, and I’m supposed to finish it. While I've been so fortunate in my recovery process, there are so many people living with spinal cord injuries who don't have access to the proper resources", says LeGrand. “By creating Team LeGrand,I'll be able to help all of those individuals on their road to recovery, and together we can achieve ChristopherReeve's dream of empty wheelchairs.”

If Eric LeGrand's story inspired you, there are many things that you can do to help raise funds for spinal cord injury research to help create tomorrow’s cures. For more information please contact Krista Barajas atk.barajas@uci.edu