The idea for Backbones was sparked after a visit to rehabilitation centre, Project Walk in 2008.
People in the centre told her about all the support they received during rehab, but how this was lost once they got home and reality hit.
“Everything was much harder, it was harder to find information, and connection and peer support and just being connected to the community.”
The challenges people living with a spinal cord injury face are often the basic ones she says.
“They’re facing health issues, secondary to their spinal cord injury that prevents them from going to an event, seeking out each other. That connection is super important, connecting with healthcare professionals, potential employers and the community in general, otherwise you can feel isolated and it takes a toll on your physical and mental health.”
After talking with her sisters, Reveca realised she had the potential to help connect these people one on one to find that peer support that was missing after they left rehab and went home.
She was lucky enough to meet Johnny Imerman, the founder of Imerman’s Angels, a peer support service for cancer survivors that paired people of a similar age, and type of cancer.
“I saw how simple it was and thought it would’ve been awesome for me at 13, I didn’t have any mentors, no women or younger girls to talk and share with.”
And Backbones was born, but Reveca admits the hardest thing about starting her own organisation was exactly that – starting.