Amanda Burt was a teenage girl in Red Deer with her whole life ahead of her. But in an instant, her life changed forever.
A three-quarter-ton truck smashed into her vehicle and left the 16-year-old with severe brain damage – unable to speak, walk or even remember who she was. Five years later, with the help of the Acquired Brain Injury Program at Catholic Social Services, she’s been given the chance to rebuild her life.
“The Amanda that everyone knew – the girl my dad coached in hockey, the girl whose hair my mom would braid, my big brother’s little annoying sister – she died that day,” Burt said Jan. 23 as this year’s Sign of Hope campaign, which raises funds for CSS, came to end.