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Theresa Cathers suffered a brain injury 20 years ago. She uses her story and experience as the co-vice president of the Northwest Missouri Brain Injury Association. The group will be passing out bicycle helmets Sunday at Civic Center Park for Brain Injury Awareness Day.

Theresa Cathers had a storybook life. She was living in New Jersey and raising three kids with her husband. She had a good career as a nurse. But that all changed the day a military truck crashed into the Volkswagon Beetle in which she was a passenger. The car flipped and hit a telephone pole. It also flipped Ms. Cathers’ life. She suffered serious brain and other injures from the accident, and her life has never been the same.

“One day I’m a mother having a job with a husband. I came back and I wasn’t a mother. They had to take care of me,” Ms. Cathers said.

Today, Ms. Cathers lives in St. Joseph. She suffers seizures, uses oxygen, takes several medications a day and needs in-home care.

“I’m hooked to a 50-foot cord at home because the accident also ended up scarring my lung,” she said.

But she also is co-vice president of the Northwest Missouri Brain Injury Association. And she’s serious about teaching youths the importance of helmets when riding their bicycles.

That’s why she will be on hand along with other brain injury survivors to tell their stories and pass out free bicycle helmets to youths from noon to 2 p.m. Sunday at Civic Center Park. It’s part of Brain Injury Awareness Day, and the Helmet Rally is sponsored by the Northwest Missouri Brain Injury Association and Midland Empire Resources for Independent Living (MERIL).

Youths will learn how brain injuries change lives and get fitted for a free bicycle helmet. There also will be $1 raffle prizes.

“Every 32 seconds someone sustains a brain injury,” said Lori Hansen, MERIL senior independent living specialist and Northwest Missouri Brain Injury Association co-vice president. “You can’t fix your brain like your arm or leg. You have to protect your head.”

For more information, call Lori Hansen at 279-8558 ext. 1002.

Alonzo Weston can be reached

at alonzow@npgco.com.