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I can't give up, Tejada says on his struggle to recover

abs-cbnNEWS.com | 01/06/2009 11:23 PM

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The road to recovery for former Philippine Basketball Association player Eugene Tejada was not easy.

It’s has been indeed a rough journey for him since he was paralyzed after a bad fall during a basketball game in May 2006.

“The toughest part, probably, is going through depression. Depression was hard,” said Eugene during a recent interview in ANC’s sports program HardBall. 

Doctors said he only had a small chance to gain full control of his legs again.

“You know doctors told me at first that I have four to five percent of ever walking again,” recounted Eugene. “That was hard to take.”

The former Purefoods forward cited his family and close friends as his source of motivation to work his way back to being “normal” again.   

“In my lowest point, I was like 'I can't give up, I can't give up. I gotta keep going.’ Images of my friends my family [are on my mind]… everybody when I saw the worry in their faces, I said ‘I could get through this, I could get through this’,” said Eugene.

And recover he did.

In 2007 after numerous therapy sessions, Eugene was starting to “move” again when he regained partial control of his legs with the help of braces. 

More improvements came out in 2008.

“As of now I have no braces and I could stand on my own, with my own strength. Now I could walk a lot faster, a lot stronger,” said Eugene.

He came back to spend the holidays in the Philippines last December as close friends and relatives greeted him with words of encouragement.  

“It's been overwhelming. I walk on the streets and people say 'it's good to see you back'. It's heart warming for me,” said Eugene.

As he continues to work out his full recovery, Eugene said he could use his experience to motivate others who went through trying times like he did.

He said an agent encouraged him to share his story to help others.

“He said 'you have a great story'. Hopefully I'd learn to be a motivational speaker,” said Eugene.