A young Macomb County woman is beating the odds, using her struggles to help others.
Allie Brenner has faced a lot of adversity and she’s inspiring others by focusing on the ‘can’ instead of the ‘can’t.’
“Step in my shoes for a day, walk in our shoes for a day and then you’ll learn about it, learn what we have to go through, you’ll learn that this is,” she said.
Allie is talking about Cerebral Palsey.
“I have trouble walking and balancing and troubles with my right hands and my right leg,” she said. “I was born at 26 weeks and I had a rough go of it.”
But, that hasn’t stopped Allie from doing everything she sets her mind to, all while fostering her compassionate heart.
“I come in here and they smile and they’re happy and they try so hard, she said. “Our bodies are basically stuck, so they try so hard to get out of that body that they’re in.”
Allie, now 22-years-old, volunteers as a physical therapy tech at the Conductive Education Center of Metro Detroit where she spent more than a decade receiving therapy at the parent-run center funded by donations.
“I’ve been through it and I know exactly what they’re going through,” Allie said. “I try to help them and try to make them smile.”
She leads by example, showing the others with Cerebral Palsey that there is nothing she can’t do. Her first dream? Joining the ranks of the elite national champion Trilogy Cheer Team.
“It is the first special needs cheerleading team in Michigan,” she said. “I love it, I’m competing every weekend locally and then we have one big competition out in Ohio,” she said.
Then, Allie set out to get a job.
“I work at MJR which is at Partridge Creek and I’m an usher,” Allie said.
Allie hopes to further her education in physical therapy to be able to help others even more. She says her struggles have not been in vain, all leading to her own and others successes.
“Even though I didn’t think my disability was a blessing,” she said. “It’s helped me in a lot of ways because if I didn’t have this disability, I wouldn’t have been here, I wouldn’t have discovered this program, I wouldn’t have met these kids I wouldn’t have become a cheerleader. It’s blessed me in a lot of ways but at the same time it’s been a struggle, but it’s been good in a lot of ways too.”
