A Kamloops man left paralyzed after a car accident near Vernon is sharing his story with a video uploaded to YouTube.
Tory Jones was the passenger in a car that ran into a hydro pole and was launched nearly 100 feet on July 23. In the emotional story he tells beside his wife Chelsea, Jones describes what little he remembers of the crash.
“I remember looking down at my steel toe boots and thinking wow, my feet feel heavy,” Jones says in the video.
Jones was taken to hospital and following a CT scan it was found that he had a shattered vertebrae.
Jones was a certified utility arborist — a job he’s no longer able to do given his injuries, which has forced he and his wife and their two kids out of their home.
“I enjoyed what I did,” Jones said. “That was the main income for our household. We’ve currently had to sell our home and have a rental that we reside in now until we can eventually, hopefully, purchase a new home.
“It’s definitely a hit right now financially for us, but we get by.”
To help the Jones family get by, a GoFundMe page was set up by Rob and Kelly Charron. The page has raised $21,845 of its $150,000 goal, which will go towards stem cell treatments.
According to an Aug. 15 update on the page, Jones has looked into alternative treatment through clinical trials with the hopes of having a stem cell transplant through a clinic in Minnesota.
“Unfortunately due to the experimental element we’re unable to rely on insurance and will have to be self funded,” the post read.
“Our goal is to raise as much money as we can to help reduce the financial worries that come with this stressful situation,” the Charrons said in their original GoFundMe post back in July. “This is a young family just getting started and needs our support.”
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