Up until age 25, Laurence Walker, a special education major at the University of Lynchburg, had a normal life.
One day, everything changed. While working for Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield in California, he experienced a bad headache.
Walker said he never experienced a headache or any symptoms similar to this before.
That day, he was supposed to work overtime, but the headache worsened and he had a hard time understanding people. He walked outside with his coworkers and suddenly fell onto the street.
Walker said he didn’t tell his coworkers about his symptoms that day. Security was called and he was taken to the hospital. Walker had experienced a stroke, which left him in a coma for three months.
After his came out of his coma, he underwent three months of rehab, returning to work three months later. It took him close to a year. He said he had to continue to work to take care of his family.
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“At that time, even though I was sick, I just brushed it off,” Walker said.
Walker moved to Richmond a few years later to take a job working for the health care provider CareMore. In Richmond, he experienced a mini-stroke.
At age 32, Walker returned to Lynchburg, where he was born and raised. And he experienced yet another stroke when he returned.
In all, from the age of 25 to 34, Walker experienced four strokes. He said he had “to pretty much change my life all around and reinvent myself each time.”
When he returned to Lynchburg, Walker said, he began taking control of his own health and wondered why the strokes kept happening. Originally, doctors did not have an answer.
He later learned he had polycythemia vera, a rare type of blood cancer which causes bone marrow to make too many red blood cells, white blood cells or platelets. The excess cells thicken the blood, slow its flow and can cause blood clots.
Walker had blood clots in both his arm and legs.
“There’s no real cure for it, but I just keep going,” Walker said.
Walker said there were times throughout his journey where he wondered why he should keep going.
“I fell into a big depression because if I keep doing this, this is going to keep happening. Why should I keep going if this is going to keep happening?” Walker said.
Denise Scruggs, director of the Beard Center on Aging at the University of Lynchburg, first met Walker a couple of years ago when he arrived to interview for a job.
Scruggs said initially, Walker minimized some of the major issues he had been through. In fact, she said it wasn’t until a few weeks ago that she and other staff at the Beard Center on Aging learned the extent of his strokes.
She said she had a similar experience many years ago, when she was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer. Scruggs’ cancer went into remission through the use of chemotherapy, but the treatments damaged her heart and she almost died.
Just a few years ago, right before the COVID-19 pandemic began, Scruggs had a brain aneurysm. It became more difficult to find words and socially navigate through conversations.
Scruggs said those experiences helped her and Walker connect.
“He’s just a very big inspiration for me,” Scruggs said. “Here’s somebody that’s a reminder to me to keep going and not give up.”
Today, Walker is 40 years old. He wants to continue to speak up for people with intellectual disabilities and continue to increase understanding of neurodiversity through education.
He wants to administer a call to action to people with disabilities to go to school and for people in the community to help.
Scruggs said neurodiversity is “recognizing that we all don’t think the same way and there are issues or things that can happen in our lives that affect our ability to think.”
Examples of neurodiversity include attention deficit hyperactive disorder, autism, dyslexia, dementia and cognitive impairment from injuries such as strokes.
Walker founded the Neurodiverse Student Alliance on campus to continue to increase understanding of neurodiversity.
One of the first things Walker wants to do is set up a certified transition program in Lynchburg, so students can transition from high school, have an individualized education plan and go to college. The plan or program is developed to ensure that a child who has a disability identified under the law and is attending an elementary or secondary educational institution receives specialized instruction and related services.
Walker graduates from UL in 2024. He wants to continue his education at Virginia Commonwealth University and study vocational therapy with hopes to open his own school one day.
It’s important for him to focus on what he can do instead of focusing on what society said he cannot do. He wants to be an inspiration for others like him and an inspiration to the younger generation.
“I know at any point I can just not wake up, but I’m not afraid of dying. I’m proud of living and using my extra chance the best that I can. I promised God that I was going to make the most of my extra chance,” Walker said.