The more time has passed, the more I could not accept this reality, and one day I just decided with all my heart that I will walk again. That was the start of a new life for me – a new fight to regain the ability to walk. My only goal was to get out of the wheelchair and stand on my feet to live a normal life as a child and teenager. Physiotherapy, self-exercise and my own will were the only tools available to reach the goal. My working day has turned into training.

The first breakthrough came when I was able to move a toe, this encouraged me to continue with my methods. After a while I was able to move legs slightly and to stand with help of support. It took a lot of effort to make a very first step and once this happened, I knew I could make more and more steps. With each workout there were more steps I could take.

But after every night came the morning and the crampy legs due to increased muscle tone. I couldn’t start walking and training until I stretched my muscles. Every other exercise I made, was also impossible without stretching and relaxing hamstring muscles. If I didn’t have somebody to help, I couldn’t stretch myself, so I asked my parents to stretch me three times a day. I watched the physiotherapists while they were stretching my leg muscles before we started with other exercises. It was such a routine task for them, and I always imagined that some device could do it instead, which would allow me to do that by myself and stick to my own methods. Only with such a device I could be independent and take control of my own progress in the entire rehabilitation process.