VIDEO: Not even cerebral palsy can hold Jerry back
Jacob is also in the process of assisting Mary with putting together a fund for Jerry should there ever come a time he would need it.
Twenty-seven-year-old Jerry Gaenone has lived with cerebral palsy his entire life, and after years of not training, he has started once again alongside Kaos’ Jacob Boikanyo.
Jerry’s mother, Mary, originally hails from Taung in the North West province and moved to Roodepoort in the early 1980s. She eventually started working for her current employers in Weltevreden Park as a domestic worker in 1991, the same year Jerry was born.
Jerry came into the world laden with the burden of having cerebral palsy, an aspect that made it tough at times to raise him, said his mom. Jerry would eventually attend the Gateway School in Ruimsig, where he received some forms of physiotherapy during his school career.
He continued light physiotherapy work after he completed school, but sadly after a while Mary couldn’t afford to continue paying for the physiotherapy and Jerry stopped exercising when he was about 21. Six years on, and Jerry hasn’t done much (if any) physiotherapy which has caused problems for him and his body.
Jerry has gone on to become slightly overweight, he almost entirely relies on his right side, his left leg is slightly out of place, and he is unable to fully extend his left elbow. Jerry and Jacob came together two months ago after Mary approached Jacob desperately looking for help for Jerry.
“I just couldn’t say no,” said Jacob. “I felt like God sent Jerry to me for a reason, and I aim to help him as best I can.” Jacob first took Jerry to a biokineticist to have an assessment done of what exercises and Jerry is able to do.
“We do very light training for now, just to try and get his body back into the feeling of constant exercise again,” Jacob explained. According to Mary, the work that Jacob has been doing with Jerry has made a marked difference.
“He is doing so much better physically,” Mary said. “He is healthier, and is also doing much better mentally.” Jerry’s ultimate goal is to earn a career in IT, but first he needs to get his physique back to where it needs to be.
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