MARINETTE — After experiencing a traumatic brain injury at age 16, Chad Francour wants to share his experiences and insights with the world through a book he is currently writing.

“I’m not afraid and I want to increase acculturation … I just want people to be more aware of people with differences,” said Francour, now a substitute teacher for Marinette schools.

He already has written two chapters and has started a blog — www.chadfrancour.com — through which he promotes his book and shares day-to-day insights and triumphs. He said his friend Romy Blystone has helped him with formatting issues and with bringing his website online.

“Why I’m compelled to do this book is there is this whole population out there that have suffered a traumatic brain injury that have been shoved aside by society,” Francour said. “Not many people talk to people who have something physically disabled about them.”

He plans to have 12 chapters in his book and has set a tentative goal of completing one chapter each month. Two are already written and posted in his website. The first chapter is about his life before his accident several years ago. The second is about the accident, his diagnosis and recovery time in the hospital.

“I was a great athlete, I was cognitively smart and I had a pretty steady girlfriend and I worked and did all that other stuff,” Francour said. “After, I started out at a third grade reading level. I had to relearn everything — how to walk, how to talk, how to do the simplest things that people take for granted every single day.”

He said he hopes his book will encourage people to confront prejudices against disabled people and also to be grateful for their own lot in life.

“You can be grateful for what you do have,” he said. “That underlines everything that I do is to teach people to be grateful for what they have or to be humble, to show humility.”

Since his accident, Francour has accomplished a lot in his life. He graduated high school, obtained an associate’s degree from UW-Marinette and two bachelor’s degrees from UW-Green Bay.

“I don’t want to be limited by my disability,” he added.

He has also done some public speaking and said he would like to do more.

“The two go hand in hand, I guess,” he said. “I would love to public speak anywhere and everywhere … I’ve done all these different things after my brain injury.”

As shown in his website, Francour has given his personal testimony at New Life Church in Marinette in 2012 and has given multiple classroom presentations.

“What I’d like to see it people get their moods up and keep a positive perspective on life,” he said.

 

Live everyday like it was your last,

Chad Francour