Saying 'Thank You' Now and Into the Future
After participating in rehabilitation at Shepherd Center, Mike Thomas knew he wanted to give back.
Mike Thomas started donating to Shepherd Center in 2010 as a way of saying “thank you” for the treatment he received twenty years ago.
Mike sustained a brain injury in a bicycle accident in the fall of 2003. He came to Shepherd Center’s Brain Injury Rehabilitation Program just before Thanksgiving that year. In the inpatient program, Mike worked on regaining his short-term memory and executive functioning skills. He continued his therapy at Shepherd Pathways, Shepherd Center’s comprehensive outpatient program for people recovering from brain injury.
After leaving Pathways in March 2004, he was eventually able to return to work and resume his active lifestyle.
“I don’t think I would be living the full life I am now if it hadn’t been for Shepherd Center,” Mike says. “I will be forever grateful for their treatment.”
Wanting to do more for the place that saved his life, Mike extended his support beyond financial donations and began volunteering at the hospital after he retired. He served as a volunteer for four years until the pandemic.
While Mike concentrated on giving back, he also committed to pay it forward. He and his wife, Tammy, who now live in Bluffton, South Carolina, decided to include Shepherd Center in their estate plans.
“By giving in the future, we’ll be helping them continue to provide the same first-class treatment that Mike received,” Tammy says. “They do so much to help patients, and they couldn’t do it without the help of donors. Hopefully, giving into the future will allow them to help them continue to expand their facilities and their capabilities. Unfortunately, there is no shortage of people who need Shepherd Center.”
Mike wholeheartedly agrees.
“Donating to Shepherd Center makes me feel that I am helping to make sure that others can be treated there in the same first-class manner that I was,” Mike says. “I also want to help Shepherd Center keep their standards at the level they had when they started. They gave me back my life, and I want them to continue to do that for others into the future.”
Written by Sara Baxter
With five decades of experience, Shepherd Center provides world-class clinical care, research, and family support for people experiencing the most complex conditions, including spinal cord and brain injuries, multi-trauma, traumatic amputations, stroke, multiple sclerosis, and pain. An elite center ranked by U.S. News as one of the nation’s top hospitals for rehabilitation, Shepherd Center is also recognized as both Spinal Cord Injury and Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems. Shepherd Center treats thousands of patients annually with unmatched expertise and unwavering compassion to help them begin again.