Elleda Wilson: Stroke Across America
May 19—Stroke Across America, from Missoula, Montana, is leaving Astoria today on a 4,300-mile trek to Boston. They plan to spread awareness about strokes, aphasia and the emotional recovery from the trauma they cause, during 79 stops along the way.
Leaders of the team are stroke survivor Debra Meyerson and her husband, Steven Zuckerman (pictured), who will ride tandem. She was a professor at Stanford University when she had a severe stroke in 2010.
Even after three years of therapy, Debra still had problems verbally communicating, and could not return to her job. Frustrated, she wrote an award-winning book, "Identity Theft: Rediscovering Ourselves After Stroke," released in 2019, that shared her story, and those of 25 other stroke survivors. In 2019, the couple also created the nonprofit Stroke Onward.
During their cross-country adventure, they will be accompanied by three other brain injury survivors, their goldendoodle, "Rusti" (in the tail-wagon) and a support crew. Go to strokeacrossamerica.org if you'd like to follow their journey or donate.
