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My Story - by Matt Lynds
As an undergraduate kinesiology student I always knew that I wanted to play some role in a physiotherapy clinic, but I never really knew what it meant to be a practitioner until the summer after graduation. I headed to Lima, Peru to work in a shantytown as a member of Solidarity Experiences Abroad at Brock University.
On this volunteer trip, I had the opportunity to work in several different aspects of health care from lice treatments to fluoride campaigns to nutrition awareness and physiotherapy for this impoverished community.  You never really understand the importance of general health care when you live in a suburban community in Canada where access to facilities is so simplistic that it almost seems intuitive to care for your personal health. However, in a community of over 1 million people living in conditions that are far below that of even homeless people in Canada, you begin to develop a sense of the role it plays in your life. The most powerful image occurred when I was peering into the mouth of a 2-year-old girl whose teeth had basically rotted out from simply not having access to basic hygiene supplies like a toothbrush and toothpaste. For me, this really demonstrated the potential that health care professionals have to impact the lives of any individual that they come into contact with throughout their practice.
You may be asking yourself: What does this have to do with physiotherapy? Well, as saddening as it was to see a young  girl with no teeth, as a human being you always search for that glimmer of hope in the darkness, that one moment that seems to light up the world. In Peru I had one of those moments. I spent one day in the physiotherapy clinic in San Juan de Miraflores, where the equipment was one generation shy of ‘stone age’. In this clinic I met the most spectacular lady with the greatest zest for life. Two years prior, she had a brain tumour removed from her cerebellum leaving her unable to coordinate her muscles in order to walk and talk. As a former English teacher, she was determined to teach herself how to perform these tasks again. She was able to return to near normal function with much time and dedication and the generous help of the local physiotherapist that spent countless hours working with her every day for two years. To see the smile on her face just made me realize that as a physiotherapist I would have the capacity to change a life. The night I returned from visiting the clinic in the shantytown, I checked my e-mail account to find my acceptance into the McMaster Physiotherapy program. I now have the opportunity to gain the skills and knowledge to help people to change their lives and their circumstances.
Matt Lynds, BSc Kin, MSc PT (candidate)
McMaster University
Hamilton, Ontario
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