Olivia Lewis - Advocate
Olivia Lewis is 25 years old and one of a handful of people on the planet to significantly recover from locked-in syndrome caused by a brainstem stroke. Locked-in syndrome is a rare neurological disorder that leaves cognition intact while paralyzing all muscles except for the ability to blink. Unable to move, breathe, speak, or swallow on her own— through a letter board, she spelled out carefully put together sentences with eye blinks. Day by day she made extremely small progress but through years of hard work, consistency, and dedication, the small progress began to slowly add up. Eventually, she achieved the seemingly impossible, defying all expectations--from moving a single finger to walking and talking again.
Olivia says: "Advocating for brain injury is important to me because it is critical to show others who are maneuvering their own journey to keep pushing forward, to never give up, and that recovery is possible."