Christine Bakanoff-Adams, a vivacious quadriplegic mother, can now check skydiving off her life’s to-do list.
“It was always something I wanted to do,” Bakanoff-Adams said. “It was very exciting and beautiful. But I’ll never do it again.”
Bakanoff-Adams mentioned her dream of skydiving in a story published in the March 12 Press Banner. A woman in Boulder Creek read her story and wanted to help.
“She wants to remain anonymous, but she has really become a good friend of mine,” she said. “I am very grateful to her.”
Her newfound friend paid for the skydiving trip, which took place in June, on Father’s Day, she said.
“I was very scared when I was in the airplane,” Bakanoff-Adams said. “But I just want to do everything I can.”
Her arms and legs were duct-taped to those of her tandem skydiving jumper, and the landing was smooth.
“My instructor had never jumped with a quadriplegic person before,” she said.
Bakanoff-Adams started showing signs of multiple sclerosis when she was 9 years old. By the time she was 19, she was in a wheelchair.
The 36-year-old, who grew up in Scotts Valley before moving to Capitola, is now paralyzed from the neck down and controls her wheelchair using her chin.
But though she cannot move much beyond a flick or nod of the head, Bakanoff-Adams can channel-surf on television, respond to e-mails, listen to music and link from website to website. She uses software called Sue Center, designed by Santa Cruz man Jon Bjornstad, which allows her to work a computer by gesturing with a small, reflective dot placed on her forehead.
She also rides horses regularly through a sponsorship at the Monterey Bay Horsemanship and Therapeutic Center. And as a self-described adventure junkie, she surfs and kayaks with the help of instructors.
Bakanoff-Adams said her next goal is to make enough money to buy a new car to replace her old, broken-down Volkswagen .
“The lift to put me in the car doesn’t always work,” Bakanoff-Adams said. “It’s very old and beaten down.”
These days, she said, she is at the mercy of her caregivers’ vehicles and taxi-drivers to tote her around to where she needs to be.
“I want something reliable,” Bakanoff-Adams said. “I want to be able to be more self-sufficient and independent and do everything I need to do.”
