Sarah Todd Hammer has always approached life with enthusiasm and a positive spirit, even after being diagnosed with transverse myelitis (TM). In April 2010, when she was only 8, Sarah Todd, an aspiring ballerina, became paralyzed.
Fortunately, her family brought her to the International Center for Spinal Cord Injury at Kennedy Krieger Institute, and now, she can walk and even dance again. In 2014, she participated in the Baltimore Running Festival, joining Team Kennedy Krieger to raise money for patients with spinal cord injuries, inspiring all those who saw her walk.
And, she’s inspiring many more through two books she co-wrote with her friend Jennifer Starzec, who also has TM. She hopes the books—“5k, Ballet, and a Spinal Cord Injury” and its sequel, “Determination”—will bring inspiration to anyone going through a life-changing diagnosis.
“If I didn’t have TM, I wouldn’t be an author, and I wouldn’t have met a lot of my best friends who also have TM,” Sarah Todd says. “I try to think about all the good things that came out of it instead of the bad.”
