A tragic accident changed Mark Raymond Jr.’s life eight years ago, but it hasn’t stopped him from helping and inspiring others just like him.
Raymond described it as a normal day during the Fourth of July weekend in 2016.
“What was different was mom was not there to scream, ‘Mark, don’t dive off the boat,'” he said.
Raymond hit his head on the sandy bottom of Lake Pontchartrain in Louisiana. After the terrifying moment, he said he couldn’t move.
Raymond’s best friend rescued him. He woke up a few weeks later from a medically induced coma after fracturing the fifth vertebrae in his neck, which left him paralyzed and no longer able to walk or fully use his hands.
Raymond could only imagine what his future now held.
“Am I still going to find love? Am I still going to, you know, have friends,” he wondered.
After the accident, Raymond went from being a social butterfly and an outdoorsmen to a loner, saying he suffered from suicidal thoughts and depression for a time.