Class of 2022:
Jose Reyes
Meet Jose Reyes. Jose was the 8th recipient of The ‘Kel Strong’ Scholarship awarded in June 2022. Jose’s injury occurred back in June 2021. Jose was shot in the neck in downtown Houston while going to dinner with his ex girlfriend. Someone tried to rob Jose while he was at the stop light 3 minutes away from the restaurant. Since all the blood went up to his brain after being shot in the neck, his brain was affected resulting in him having a stroke at the same time. “I’m not able to move both legs or my right arm. I only have movement on my left arm and my speech was affected. But that doesn’t stop me from doing things. I do need assistance but I’m continuing to do therapy,” says Jose. “Since then I have being going to therapy and doing activities that can help me recover. Especially going to sport games, car shows, racing and a mechanic class.”
Jose reached out to the Kel Strong Foundation because he was having issues to purchase equipment including a power wheelchair that will help his recovery since his insurance didn’t want to cover anything. And Jose had hope that the Kel Strong Foundation could help him purchase a wheelchair since the one he had was lent to him and had to be returned sooner or later. Jose ended up having a bigger need for an a leg brace to help him being able to walk that his insurance was not willing to pay for it as well. So his scholarship that he was awarded went towards purchasing the leg brace for him to enable Jose to reach his goals for walking again and towards additional physical therapy sessions as well to aid in his journey to recovery and back to walking.