This will be a long read into my story, but I believe it will help you understand why I am so willing to risk getting beat up to help raise funds for Aprons for Gloves. Last year I raised $2100, but unfortunately did not get to fight as I was selected as an alternate fighter in case anyone was injured or sick come fight night. When I look back on the experience I can understand why I was not chosen to fight.

Going through Aprons for Gloves 2016 really pushed me outside many of my comfort zones to which I am very grateful for. I struggled with high anxiety once sparring training had started. In those sparring sessions due to the anxiety, I was constantly drained of energy almost immediately after starting. Most of the anxiety I felt stemmed from the fact that, for the majority of my 38 years on Earth, I've struggled with my self confidence, and dealing with conflict.

Prior to AFG 2016 I had just recently been diagnosed with ADHD, something that I would have never guessed, however, once diagnosed so many aspects of my life made sense. It has taken me a little over a year to really allow the diagnosis to sink in and process. Our self esteem begins to form during our childhood. The reason so many ADHD adults have-low self esteem is because their behaviour is different from the ‘norm’. Our high energy, impulsivity, perhaps poor social skills (in my case, an inability to pick up social cues), was likely to receive negative messages from our peers or the adults in our life.

My school years were difficult, especially grades 4 & 5. From grades K to 12, I had attended 8 different schools, 6 of those were elementary. In my earlier years, I was labeled a “class clown”, frequently kept after class for detention, forced to write lines for my behavioral outbursts, I spent a few occasions sitting outside the principal's office. In highschool I was a solid “C” student, doing just enough work to pass, but not so much that it would interfere with what I would rather be doing. Throughout all of this, every report card, or parent teacher interview had the same repeating phrases “If he would just apply himself, or “If he would just try harder!”. What people don’t understand about ADHD is that it would be a lot like telling a person who has bad eyesight, "If you would only see better!".

When I was in Grade 6, after experiencing extreme ankle, knee and hip pain (enough that I was hospitalized), I was diagnosed with Juvenile ankylosing spondylitis (JAS) which is a type of arthritis that affects the spine and the sites where the muscles, tendons, and ligaments are attached to bone. My future with this diagnosis looked bleak as the disease could result in erosion at the joint between the spine and the hip bone (the sacroiliac joint), and the formation of bony bridges between vertebrae in the spine, fusing those bones. In addition, bones in the chest could fuse. My parents had a friend with the disease whose neck was fused in place, unable to move his head in any direction.

This disease really put a lot of limitations on what was possible for me do physically. With medication most days were manageable, yet others even with the medication were barely tolerable. Some nights, the pain of climbing stairs to go use the washroom would bring me to tears. I was already a pretty small kid in highschool, I graduated only weighing 135lb and to be crippled in this way didn’t just make me feel weak, but helpless as well.

When I started grade 8, we had just moved to a new house, in a rural area outside of Prince George, BC. We were bussed into high school, a trip which took approximately 45 min. I’d be lying if I didn’t say that the bullying started pretty much on the first day, and wouldn’t stop until I reached grade 12. I was never “beat up” in the traditional sense, but threatened / made fun of a lot, choked unconscious on the bus once which left bruises around my neck. Frequently had things thrown at me, everything from soft/hard objects to food. The kids responsible were all older, bigger, who had all pretty much grown up together. I was an easy target when I first stepped on that bus, a skinny outsider, with no friends.

In grade 11, near the end of the year an incident occurred on the bus once again, an apple had been smashed over my head. This time the bus driver had seen the incident and made the kid sit up at the front of the bus. This was also the incident that pushed me over the edge, and caused me to strike back, literally. When we reached my stop, and I was walking to the front, that kid sat there with a grin across his face, that i quickly shut with my fist. The driver grabbed me immediately after and suspended me from the bus for a week. This was the first time, I had ever really stood up for myself, and after the rage wore off was terrified of what would happen next. Thankfully nothing.

Somewhere in my early twenties, I’m not 100% sure when, my Arthritis went into remission. It actually took quite a few years to fully process that I was no longer in pain daily. I started running in 2015, and completed my first ever 12K run in May 2016, when I took part in the BMO Marathon Relay. That same month I started AFG 2016. Since AFG 2016 my self confidence has skyrocketed and I went on to complete 3 more 10K runs, something that in my teens I thought would be impossible for me.

Training at East Side Boxing over the last year has been such a positive, amazing experience. It’s helped me see that I’m not weak or helpless, and that with a lot of hard work I can achieve what I want. This year, I am actually excited for our sparring sessions to start. I am looking forward to testing myself, to see how far I have come. My goal is to fight at the commodore ballroom on July 26th, but I need your help in reaching my fundraising goals.

I need:

$500 by June 1st

$1500 by July 6th

$2000 by July 20th

Thank you for your support.