Hockey player finds new life after injury Living with paralysis no barrier to painter

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BOSTON – The paintings in Travis Roy’s apartment pop off the walls with their bright, colorful hues.

The newest addition in a series of four still lifes features dark-green pine needles, holly leaves and clusters of bright red berries, their precise details in sharp contrast against a white background.

All the more startling is that Roy – living with paralysis for the past eight years since a college hockey accident – painted them with a brush clenched in his teeth.

“I’m a far better painter than I was before,” he said. “When I painted with my hand, I always wanted perfect straight lines. When you paint with your mouth, there’s no such thing as a straight line. There aren’t any straight lines in nature.”

Nor are there straight lines in life – as Roy learned when his life took an unexpected turn on Oct. 20, 1995.

Eleven seconds into his first shift on the Boston University hockey team, he crashed headfirst into the boards, causing a spinal-cord injury that left him without feeling below his shoulders. It seemed a cruel fate for a young hockey star with dreams of a pro career.

But Roy, who grew up in Yarmouth, Maine, was not beaten. After months of rehabilitation, he returned to BU the next school year, continuing his studies with a voice-activated computer and the help of health aides and classroom note takers.

In 1998, he wrote a book with Sports Illustrated writer E.M. Swift about his injury and rehabilitation, “Eleven Seconds,” recounting the accident and the uphill fight that followed.

After he graduated with a degree in communications in 2000, he struggled to find a place in the work world and to find enjoyment in a life threatened by physical isolation.

Now he lives in near-independence in Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood. He has a motivational speaking career and works with the foundation bearing his name to help people with spinal-cord injuries.

Starting Jan. 17, he’ll be an in-studio college hockey analyst for WMTW-TV in Auburn, Maine, for three University of Maine home hockey games.

“I’ve never done it before, so I’m a little worried, a little afraid. But I believe in throwing yourself into something,” said Roy, 28. “I’d love to open this door and see what opportunity might come from it, see if it’s something I really do enjoy.”

The latest opportunity arose when WMTW picked up four telecasts of Maine hockey games from WABI-TV in Bangor. The Black Bears are the state’s biggest sports obsession, and WMTW wanted an articulate co-host with Maine ties and hockey knowledge for locally produced segments between periods.

Not only did Roy fit the bill, he was enthusiastic about giving TV a try, station sports director Norm Karkos said.

“Everyone knows Travis and his story, and how courageous he is and what a source of inspiration he is,” Karkos said. “To be sitting next to him is a tremendous honor for me and this station.”

Roy’s friend Ed Carpenter, director of the Boston University sports information department where Roy interned as a student, said Roy has the understanding and passion for the game and the work ethic to succeed.

“Whatever he chooses to do, he’s going to be successful because of his competitive drive,” Carpenter said. “He’s also the kind of person who doesn’t want to give in. If he wants to do broadcasting, he’ll find a way to do it.”

Roy has built his speaking career to about 30 appearances a year, mostly at schools. He also works with the Travis Roy Foundation, which in the past six years has given more than $1 million for spinal-cord research and grants to people with spinal-cord injuries. The grants are used to pay for items such as wheelchairs and home modifications – “simple things to make people’s lives and the families’ lives easier,” he said.

Roy also is involved in the New England Spinal Cord Initiative, a movement to found a first-class spinal injury research and rehabilitation center in the region. In May, he testified before the Massachusetts Legislature in favor of a bill to encourage stem-cell research.

He has help from home health aides, but he gets around his apartment and much of Boston on his own, controlling a joystick-operated wheelchair with the limited movement he has in his right arm.

“He’s certainly become more independent, not relying on mom and dad to run his life – not that he ever did,” says his mother, Brenda Roy of Yarmouth, Maine. “I think he’s proud of the fact he can be independent.”

In his leisure time, Roy has dinners with friends at his apartment and around Boston, spends summer months with his family in Colchester, Vt., and paints.

For a person who describes himself as “goal-oriented,” art is a way to let go.

He doesn’t see it as a potential business, at least not yet. “My mother is protective of my artwork,” he explains, leaving open the possibility he’ll sell prints some day.

Roy works in acrylics. To reach the canvas he uses a longer brush, which makes precise work a little more difficult. It takes 10 to 12 hours total, in three or four sessions, to finish a painting.

“If I start a piece I like, it’s kind of fun, I can’t wait to get through it,” he said. “Some days you feel good and other days you don’t know what you’re doing.

“I’m trying to find ways to express myself, entertain myself. Some turn out better than others.”

His artwork is also a matter of family pride, adorning the Roys’ Christmas cards for the past few years.

“I don’t think he really discovered what he’s using today until after his accident,” Brenda Roy said. “I think that’s something that’s new. And I think it’s a nice sense of accomplishment for him.”

Roy says he makes it a point to do things to enrich his life, and he urges others to do the same.

“A lot of things I enjoyed have been taken from me, so the things I really enjoy, I do on a regular basis,” he said.

And he says he has no time for regret. “I spend very little time on that. It just doesn’t do much for me.”

Indeed, he remains confident that medical research will someday allow people like him to walk again.

“I live with the ongoing belief my life will change. There’s no doubt about that,” he said. “It’s clear it’s a more difficult challenge than I once thought, but I have not given up hope a cure will be found.”

Travis Roy Foundation: http://www.travisroyfoundation.org. WMTW-TV: www.wmtw.com.