CityView Magazine - Fayetteville, NC
Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/236583
BEYOND MANAGEMENT AT ASSOCIA HRW, INC., we offer HOA and condominium management services beyond what you'll find anywhere else, designed to improve your life. Call us now for a free quote. FAYETTEvillE 3771 RAMsEY sTREET, #109-153 (866) 850-0353 www.hRw.NET customercare@hrw.net c a p e HRW-13-010 CityView SepOct.indd 1 f e a r v a l l e y b l o o d d o n o r c e n t e r 8/19/13 12:41 PM Allen, with his wife Cindy Burnham and Lucky this is more than a bag of blood. This is a father being able to walk his daughter down the aisle. This is a grandmother being able to kiss her first grandbaby. This is a teenage girl being able to go to prom. This is a child being able to laugh and play at the park. give life. give memories. give blood. saving lives locally : 910 615-life 26 | January/February • 2014 remembered for two months." After he awoke, he could barely move or eat without extreme effort on his part and the added assistance from others, "Your body just atrophies in amazing ways over two months, I probably lost over 50 percent of my body strength," said Allen, "It was crazy." His once high-reaching goals became small and short term, "You are so physically debilitated that it is hard to see beyond that very moment," Allen said, then added, "If you could [only] tell people who are in that position now that there will come a time when they will look into the future and see that things would, for the most part, be okay." For some an accident like this might be the end of a story, but for him it was just a hiccup. "I have always been a glass-is-half-full kind of a guy, and new experiences are just fun challenges to me. I like travel, I like new places and I like new things, so this was just a new challenge—something to be overcome or embraced or whatever mix of the two," explained Allen. His recovery was driven by his desire to get back to his life and by the support of his family and friends, "You need something you care about and love and that to me was diving in the ocean… I was [also] surrounded by this incredible support structure; I had great friends and family, physical therapists and doc-