Meet Adaptive Athlete: Marc Matthews

Marc grew up in Fayetteville, North Carolina where he played football and also developed skills as a mechanic, something he would later use during his military service. He graduated high school in 1999 and immediately enlisted in the United States Army, serving from 2001 until 2005. 

 

Marc served as a mechanic and deployed three times, with his third and final deployment being to a combat zone in Balad, Iraq where he sustained the first of multiple traumatic brain injuries due to a rocket attack. Marc finished his service and was quietly discharged from the Army after four years. In June of 2017, Marc was riding his motorcycle through Georgia where he was involved in an accident which left him on life support and in a medically induced coma for over 20 days. As a result of the accident, Marc sustained a brachial plexus injury that left his right arm paralyzed.

 

After his recovery, Marc has tried to get back to some sense of normalcy despite the constant pain from his injuries. Additionally, Marc wants to get stronger and get back into a healthy routine in order to be a role model for his kids and his grandkids when the time comes.