by PAUL RAYNER

December 6 will be more than Santa Day in Boissevain. It will also be a day where the community can help a local teenager and his family on their road to recovery.

A benefit evening for Creed Cann is planned and according to organizers, the events are a response to a difficult situation.

“We want him to know that we all love him,” said family friend Roxanne Cowlthorp, “and we want him to continue to get better.”

Creed Cann, the 13-year old son of Steve and Leah Cann, was injured almost a year ago, on December 18. According to his mother, he was with his friends playing on a snow hill at the school, goofing around as kids do. He was accidentally kicked in the nose and as he was checking out that injury, someone fell on him and drove his head into the hill. He was taken into the school, and it is still uncertain whether or not he lost consciousness during the accident.

Cann said she was called to the school after he was unable to sit on a chair in class, and she took him to the hospital to check him out. At first, everything seemed all right. However, that night, he could not bear weight at hockey practice. With Dr. Meyer Nell in attendance at the rink, he took Creed to the health centre, felt he was severely concussed and the boy was sent for CT scan in Brandon.

“On the way home,” his mother said, “he was showing the signs of being severely concussed. We kept waking him up in the night in case he had a concussion.”

Over the Christmas holidays, they found he was suffering serious problems on the left side of his body and he was very tired. He was later upgraded to a traumatic brain injury.

“We have been doctoring and seeing therapists every since. There has never been a conclusive diagnosis.”

Cann said the latest suggestion is that her son suffered axonal shearing - damage to neurons in the brain which also disrupts the communication between them. This disrupts the brain’s ability to control the body.

Regardless of exact diagnosis, the impact on Creed was that the left side of his body, as the insult to the brain was on the right side, suffered the specific impact. It left him with a number of problems. For example, he needed help walking, using a walker at home and a wheelchair at school. The difficulty was that he had to re-learn how to do things, as the brain is forced in a sense to work around the injury.

“The hope is that the brain finds ways around it,” Cann explained. “The theory is that you relearn how to do things.”

He also has had difficulty with some other areas like mathematics, where higher level learning can be okay, but something more basic like subtraction can be a problem.

Cann said they have been dealing with neurosurgeons, neurologists, occupational therapists, physiotherapists and others since the accident.

“We’ve been to Winnipeg 23 times altogether with various appointments.”

Significant improvement has occurred. He no longer uses ambulatory aids to help him walk at home or at school. His visual spacing and cognitive skills have also improved. Cann said, like many surgeries or injuries, it took time for improvement and it was not consistent.

“For about six months,” she said, “there was no improvement. Then there was a big jump. It works like that. There is improvement, then he plateaus for a while, then more improvement.”

The benefit evening should help continue that improvement. Organizers Cowlthorp, Tara Albrecht and Tracey Hicks say the purpose of the evening is two-fold.

“Part of it is raising money for them,” Hicks explained, “and part of it is to raise their spirits. We want him to continue to work hard to improve.”

“A lot of people would come to us,” Albrecht added, “and say ‘how do we show support?’ By having a community event all age groups could show support.”

The first part of the evening will be a fun hockey game between the Boissevain Bronco high school hockey team and the Border Kings Alumni. Past BK favourites like Darryl Albrecht, Scott Patterson, Gord Ransom, and teachers Corey Billaney, Keith Forsyth, Brad White and Creed’s teacher Travis Laing are a part of the squad.

“The support was overwhelming,” Albrecht said, “people were not hesitating. Darryl phoned around and within a minute they were saying they would be there.”

The teams will be coached by Creed with the help of some of his minor hockey chums. Part of the reason the benefit event was held now instead of the winter was so Creed could have a better opportunity to participate.

There will also be an opportunity to shoot the puck with a chance to win $500. The Border Kings will be donating the money from their game against Carberry later that evening. In the Boissevain Legion Hall, starting at 9:00 pm, will be a social evening featuring live and silent auctions. Articles up for bid include golf clubs, artwork and signed sports memorabilia, with the donations from businesses being extremely generous.

Albrecht said they have no real number goal for the money raised. Cann said it would go into Creed’s trust account. She said they do not know what his future needs might be at this point, but if the money is not needed it will go back to the community.

Right now, Creed continues to work with his physiotherapist and occupational therapist once a week and does programs daily at school. There have been modifications to his learning program, although the goal is for the achievement medal student to eventually return to regular programming. He is presently re-learning to skate, another challenge that will need work. His mother said the jury is still out on the future situation, as there is no firm diagnosis, although lifelong problems could be there, perhaps including headaches or some memory problems. But so should continued improvement.

She added the occupational therapist from Winnipeg would be coming to the school on December 16 to work with Creed and other students and talk about brain injuries.

“The fear for me is that as he gets better physically,” Cann explained, “he will become invisible. He will still have problems and challenges.”

However, he has come a long way and part of the benefit evening is to celebrate that. As stated before, it is also to inspire for the future.

“It goes back to what I started with,” Hicks stated. “We want to support Creed and keep him working hard.”