Three years after a spinal cord injury rendered him a quadriplegic, Ben Farrar is finally able to sit up on his own. But the Marblehead native’s road to recovery is not over.
The injury happened on a high school trip to France. Ferrar dove in the water to cool off, but a wave tossed him on his neck and pushed his head down into a sandbar. Since 2015, the Marblehead community has rallied behind Farrar and his family to support his activity-based physical therapy, at $50,000 a year.
“I know I have everyone in my corner rooting for me and I just want to do well for them to show how far their support has gotten me,” he said.
Farrar, 22, is now a sophomore, studying finance, at the University of New Hampshire. His mother, Yunita, said he is doing extremely well, and only getting stronger, but has a long road ahead of him.
The fourth annual fundraiser for Farrar is Saturday, Nov. 17 at the Gerry No. 5 VFA, 210 Beacon St., in Marblehead. Tickets are $50 each and can be purchased on the fundraiser’s Eventbrite page. There will be live music from The Nick Consone Band, silent and live auctions, balloon pops, and a cash bar with a number of appetizers.
“We have an amazing community here in our little town, but all the help is not only from local people but also from people far away,” said Yunita Farra. “The outreach has been an enlightening experience and people all over the world are reaching out to us after being inspired by his story.”
All proceeds from the fundraiser will go directly to his spinal recovery work with Project Walk Boston Ability Center, located in Stratham, N.H., only 20 minutes away from his dorm. While he is making critical progress with his treatments, the yearly fundraisers are a necessity because his insurance does not cover his work with the physical therapy program.
Farrar’s parents, Yunita and Michael, organize the fundraiser every year. Yunita said her son continues to grow stronger with all the hard work he puts in, three times a week at three hours a day. Over the summer, he was finally able to abandon the need to use the chest strap on his wheelchair, she said.
The Farrar family hopes that, one day, Ben will be able to have mobility, freedom, and the pain-free life that he is fighting for. Yunita said each year brings more progress and she is grateful that he is enjoying college and not spending his free time in hospital rooms, like he did the first year of his injury.
With multiple surgeries and a core not strong enough to allow him to breathe on his own, simple colds would quickly turn into pneumonia during his first year of recovery, said his mother. He was also prone to infections given the catheter he is forced to live with, she said.
With the critical improvements he gains whenever he exits Project Walk’s doors, Yunita said her son’s quality of life, both physically and socially, is much more positive.
“We just want to make sure he continues somewhat of a normal life, and that we do too, because his dad and I still have to work,” said Yunita. “At the end of day, we do whatever we need to do.”
