On the evening of June 24, 2000, while at Hale Reservation in Westwood, Dan Cummings, Founder and President of Journey Forward, in Canton, dove from a rowboat into the water and snapped his neck.

He wasn’t about to drown in his sorrows.

Rushed to Boston Medical Center (BMC), where he remained for five weeks Cummings, of Hyde Park, was diagnosed a C6 quadriplegic.

“Hey, I was 19 years old, and my life changed forever, but life wasn’t over. I just headed in a new direction.” Cummings said.

The route took him from BMC to the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, Georgia for three months. Cummings went to two outpatient facilities in Massachusetts – Health South and Back on Track – for one year each. At one point he was told he had gotten as far as he could, in terms of progress.

“I wasn’t about to stop trying to do more,” Cummings said.

At the suggestion of a former physical therapist, who realized Cummings had uncanny drive and great expectations, Cummings headed to Project Walk in San Diego, California.

“I was there five minutes and knew it was different. It was where l needed to be. I looked around and saw paraplegics and quadriplegics doing the most amazing things,” he said. So, he moved to San and relentlessly pushed himself beyond his own limits at Project Walk, for three years, before heading home.

Cummings had a burning desire on his mind and in his heart.

“I didn’t want people to have to travel 3,000 miles to get what I got.”

He opened Journey Forward, June 1, 2006 and continued grueling rehab regimens.

“On October, 9, 2010, Cummings, with the aid of a walker, walked a mile in front of hundreds of awe-struck, cheering spectators.” He is now considered a “walking quad.” He also drives, and was married four months ago.

“God is with me in all that I do,” Cummings said.

Cummings and a team of 17 exercise physiologists oversee more than 100 clients who have Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) and/or other debilitating neurological-related injuries from traumatic accidents or stroke.

Two Journey Forward clients, who suffered traumatic SCI, resulting in paralysis, are West Roxbury residents Mark Delamere Jr., and Julia Gangemi.

On September 6, 2013, the third day of his freshman year at Boston Latin Academy, Delamere was a passenger in a car, traveling home from school with some friends, when suddenly the vehicle violently crashed on the Arborway in Jamaica Plain.

Delamere was rushed to Children’s Hospital where he lay for three weeks, one of those being in a coma. He had a traumatic brain injury (TBI) and a T12 spinal cord injury.

“I don’t remember anything from that accident other than my life changed forever,” Delamere said.

Immediately after his discharge from Children’s, Delamere, like Cummings, went to the Shepherd Center for three months.

He looks back at his many years of rehabilitation with matter-of-fact acceptance.

“I just did what I needed to do to improve… It’s not that anyone said the word ‘never’ to me. They usually phrased it in terms of, ‘We’re not sure if you’ll ever be able to…’”

Not sure if you’ll ever dress yourself.

He does.

Advertisement

Not sure if you’ll be able to live on your own.

He lives in his own West Roxbury home with his Australian Shepherd, Cash.

Not sure if you’ll ever drive. Wrong again. Recently, after I interviewed Delamere at Journey Forward, he drove me home in his car that is modified with hand controls for gas and brake.

Delamere, 27, volunteers at Schultz’s Guest House Dog Rescue Shelter, in Dedham. He started at Journey Forward because his parents knew about Danny Cummings’ successes. Working out there two times a week, Delamere insists on realistic expectations.

“Journey Forward is important. The people there, the staff and the other clients are nice. Also, if I didn’t have my family and friends, my life would be a mess, for sure. I love being with my friends,” he said.

Another person with whom Delamere is friendly is Julia Gangemi who was a freshman at BLS when Delamere was a freshman at BLA. Both graduated in 2017.

Gangemi went to Northeastern University, majoring in Electrical Engineering, and was in her junior year when, on June 24, 2020, she was in a horrific accident on the Westport River. The boat ran aground, launching Gangemi into the air and slamming her to the ground. She tried to stand up, but her lower body wouldn’t move.

Rushed to Rhode Island Hospital, Gangemi had a T4 complete spinal cord injury. Her T5, T6, and T7 vertebrae were broken with a completely severed spinal cord at the T6 level.

She was discharged, after a week, and went to the Shepherd Center for the next two months.

Gangemi immediately began planning to improve her condition. She texted Mark Delamere because she knew he was going to Journey Forward. Today she works out there four hours a week.

“Journey Forward is an amazing place. The people who work there are kind, talented and selfless. It is a wonderful community, and the first place I didn't feel different or like an outsider after my injury,” said Gangemi.

Gangemi, 27, went back to NU, graduated in 2022, and is currently pursuing her PhD in Biomedical Engineering, at Brown University, with a focus in Microengineering and Rehabilitative Neurotechnology. She said she believes so much more can be done to help those with paralysis.

“I want to develop technological advances for those with SCI,” Gangemi said.

Gangemi drives to Brown and stays in her own apartment, from Monday through Friday, then drives back to her family home, in West Roxbury, where she is immediately greeted by her poodle, Chloe. Heading to Journey Forward, a state-of-the-art rehabilitation facility, is always part of her schedule.

The rehabilitation offered there includes a Lokomat, a harness and weighted support system and robotic legs for walking on a treadmill. Also, NMES, NeuroMuscular Electrical Stimulation. “Mark and Julia both work with the Lokomat and undergo NMES,” Cummings said.

Dan Cummings believed in himself. He believes in the capacity of the human spirit of all Journey Forward clients. “Both Mark and Julia have great spirit and are consistently hardworking. They’ve come a long way,” he said.

Journey Forward is a non-profit 501c3. Clients’ costs are not covered by insurance. For more information and to donate, go to https://journey-forward.org