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Community rallies to buy a new leg brace for Sarasota polio survivor
Sarasota resident Kathi Coleman has received an outpouring of support from the community wanting to pay for her new $2,800 polio leg brace.
SARASOTA – A 72-year-old, widowed polio survivor whose unorthodox swimming style rated a Jan. 31 story in the Herald-Tribune has been blown away by a community determined to keep her moving.
“My mouth dropped – it’s like oh my god I couldn’t believe it,” recalls Sarasota’s Kathi Coleman. “I mean, there were teachers, principals, a couple of high school classmates, and some people I didn’t know.
Sarasota polio survivor swims a mile each day, roots for the Bucs and needs a new brace
Herald-Tribune, The (Sarasota, FL)
Jan. 30 SARASOTA Left leg strapped snugly into an aging brace, spine curved by an exhausted scourge from another era, diminutive
Kathi Coleman is among the last of her kind. She is hard to miss as she hobbles slowly along with the aid of a cane.
In the water, however, she has no peers at all. At least, not at the three-lane, 25-yard long pool at the
LA Fitness gym in
Mobility hardware discarded alongside her Tampa
Bay Bucs towel draped over a chair, Coleman takes a seat on the tile and scoots toward the edge, where she plops into the water and shoves off, face down.
SARASOTA – Left leg strapped snugly into an aging brace, spine curved by an exhausted scourge from another era, diminutive Kathi Coleman is among the last of her kind. She is hard to miss as she hobbles slowly along with the aid of a cane.
In the water, however, she has no peers at all. At least, not at the three-lane, 25-yard long pool at the LA Fitness gym in Sarasota.
Mobility hardware discarded alongside her Tampa Bay Bucs towel draped over a chair, Coleman takes a seat on the tile and scoots toward the edge, where she plops into the water and shoves off, face down.