Bret sits down with Paralympian Jessica Lewis. Jessica was born in
Warwick Parish, Bermuda with a condition called Diastematomyelia, which is a
disorder in which a bone pierced her spine and split it leaving her paralyzed from
the waist down. She has been involved in sports her whole life.
She currently resides in Misssisauga, Canada. She is a multiple time gold medallist at
the Parapan Am games and has competed at a world championship in Doha, Qatar. She
is coached by her former teammate Curtis Thom with her club team, Cruisers Sports.
She was introduced to her former coach Ken Thom at the age of 13 and began training
in 2010. She received her education from Brock University in Physiotherapy, Sport and
Recreation Studies. She has been the Flag bearer for Bermuda at multiple international
events including the 2011 Parapan Am games in Guadalajara Mexico, the Paralympic
games in 2012 & 2016. She dedicated her Parapan Am games medals in 2019 to her
late coach Ken Thom who passed away after a Scuba Diving accident in South Africa in
2017. Afterwards she was quoted as saying “It's been tough not having Ken with us as
[the 2019 Parapan American Games] was the first big competition without him, but I'm
doing all of this now in his honour. I'm so thankful to my coach Curtis Thom for getting
me to this point. I could never explain just how grateful I am to him for stepping in
after the loss of his dad and my previous coach Ken."
