I want to help people

Andrii recalls his life before that day and right after it: «Before the injury I worked in construction. In 2007 I met my wife. We have a son. He was five when I was injured — he was swimming in the river with me that day. I was swimming next to him, and a boy jumped onto me from the bank. My son does not remember much of it now. But from then on he kept asking when I would get up, when we would go somewhere together. Before that I had always walked with him, and then it stopped.»

The first steps of accepting the injury

Accepting himself with such an injury was hard. This is how Andrii describes the first steps of life «after»: «I wanted to stand up and walk. We spent a lot of resources on rehabilitation of every kind. I stayed in rehabilitation centres, and therapists came to our home. But at some point I understood that I would not walk. And I started taking care of my family and of myself. I began adapting to life. At first I did not go out anywhere. We live in a private house, so I only moved around the yard. But that is not enough! Two and a half years after the injury I bought a car with hand controls, so that we could go places together and travel. My wife’s mother had been living abroad for a long time… My family used to go there without me, and I dreamed of going with them. And now we travel a lot together — to the sea, to the Carpathians, abroad.»

It was not easy to explain what the injury meant to a five-year-old. The boy kept asking his father when he would get back on his feet and they would go somewhere together. Andrii remembers those moments with regret. Everything changed only when he accepted that he would not walk and began learning to live fully with a spinal cord injury: «When I understood that I would not walk, I started giving my son a lot of my time. We began going places and travelling again. And he accepted it all. Now I am more like a mother to him. He relies on me a great deal. We are friends. I spend a lot of time at home, and therefore with my son. Today he sees me as completely normal. He comes to me for advice. He shares everything that happens in his life with me.»

Rebuilding his own home

When he first went out into the yard, about six months after the injury, Andrii realised he had to do it more often. The neighbours’ excessive attention and questions like «when will he get up?» or «what do the doctors say?» put him under strain, sometimes irritated and upset him — but the wish to be among people and to live actively won out. And then came the need to build an accessible space around himself: «At first there was no way out of the house — people carried me down and up. Then we put down two boards and dragged the chair along them. Sometimes I tried myself, and my wife helped me. Sometimes I climbed the steps on my backside just to get into the house… Later I built an exit and a ramp. Now I get in and out on my own without any trouble, many times a day. My mother lives about three kilometres from us. We built a ramp at her place too.»

GAR in Andrii’s life

Andrii learned about the Group for Active Rehabilitation from one of our leaders, Antonina Tsurkan. She told him about the team and our work and suggested he fill in an application for an Active Rehabilitation camp. That is how Andrii got to the camp, and he has never regretted it — on the contrary, he is grateful, because the camp changed the way he sees his life in a wheelchair. Here is how he puts it: «I told Antonina that there was much I did not know how to use, that I could not travel far and so on. And she assured me that they would teach me everything at the Active Rehabilitation camp. That is how she talked me into it. We filled in my application together. In 2018 I got to the camp — that is how I met GAR! I liked it very much. I learned a great deal, especially wheelchair skills: different ways of getting over kerbs and so on… Thanks to the camp I learned how to explain to people how to help me, including with the wheelchair. I learned much that was new, important and useful: bladder and bowel management, incontinence products. Until then I had used all sorts of things and constantly had health problems… At the camp I listened to the lectures and even talked to Vitalii Pcholkin — he gave me a lot of advice. I am very glad I got there!»

«At the end of the camp all participants were asked to fill in a form. We were told about the plans ahead and about the First Contact programme — about instructors who work at hospitals and help people with an injury adapt to life. I filled in that form to become a First Contact instructor. In 2020 they called me and invited me to the training. I took the online course, and then — silence. And in 2022 they suggested I join the team at the Rivne Regional Hospital for War Veterans. I like helping people. I gladly accepted the invitation of the GAR leader, because it opens up more ways to realise yourself in this — to be useful to another person.»

That is how Andrii Nesterchuk started working in the team of First Contact instructors. In the spring of 2023, together with the team of GAR leaders, he went to a leadership camp in Poland. «I liked it very much there too. The camp is similar to ours, but differs in some ways. I learned even more, gained new skills and refreshed what I had learned at the camp in 2018.»

Andrii wants to grow together with the Group for Active Rehabilitation and tries to take part in every important event. «In May the GAR team organised a seminar for First Contact instructors in Ternopil. There were several teams; I was there with the Rivne one, together with Ivan Sivak. We had four days of intensive training,» he says.

Asked what is hardest in the work of a First Contact instructor, Andrii answers that for now he still lacks confidence. But that will certainly not stop him from getting better at this profession. His motivation to grow is the wish to help people: «As I said: I want to help people who find themselves in the same situation as me. I remember how hard it was for me. And I want people in the early stages after an injury not to have the problems I had. That motivates me most of all.»

A wheelchair from GAR

Today Andrii moves skilfully in a Panthera X wheelchair. He received it through the Group for Active Rehabilitation from Panthera AB and Permobil, with the support of Jalle Jungnell. This is how it happened: «During a GAR workshop in Klevan the team noticed my uncomfortable wheelchair and offered me a new, comfortable one. A few months later I received it, and I am endlessly grateful. I remember it always, I thank them always. The new chair changed the quality of my movement completely. The old one was very hard to fold into the car, it took me a long time, and I scratched everything around me with it. The new Panthera X is carbon and very light — four kilograms. I fold it into the car in thirty or forty seconds. Now I am very comfortable. The new wheelchair improved the quality of my life — both my balance and the way I move.»

Favourite pastimes

Andrii’s family is his priority, and most of his time goes to them. Before the full-scale invasion he most often earned extra money delivering things and giving people lifts — work connected with driving. His hobby is fishing. He also does powerlifting. And he loves cooking. «I like making food. I have free access in the kitchen, even though it is not specially adapted. It suits me,» he says about one of his favourite occupations.

Plans for the future

Andrii has many dreams about many things. The personal ones he decided to keep to himself. As for the plans connected with the Group for Active Rehabilitation, he shared them readily: working with GAR always inspires him, and right now he wants to become a better First Contact instructor. He would like to join the «Barrier-free» project, to learn and then professionally carry out accessibility audits and advise on creating inclusive spaces in the Rivne community. We believe that his drive to grow, his enthusiasm and his conscious civic stance will help all the dreams and hopes of the hero of this story come true.

With sincere thanks to Choose Love for supporting the work of instructors in the regions