Dan was born in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1995, when he was seven years old, Dan came home from school one day and “forgot how to hold a pencil” as described by his mother. That led to a series of doctor appointments, in which they found a benign brain tumor, causing stroke-like symptoms and loss of function in his right arm and leg. He underwent surgeries to lessen the impact of the tumor, but doctors were never able to safely remove it all.
Dan played a few sports growing up, but ended up shying away from them due to the differences in his appearance. He instead fell into substance abuse, but has since been clean and sober for over 10 years. In the past year, Dan has discovered adaptive athletics and is now training with the goal to compete in the disabled strongman competition.
Dan is locked in on his goals of competition, which will fuel his time at ATF. His focus is to gain strength and learn how to utilize his right side, instead of ignoring it. Beyond the physical, Dan is reframing the perceptions he has had about his right side and learning to see the strength in it instead.
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