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The extra mile

Born a congenital amputee, Johnathan Hatzis has never let his disability get in the way of achieving his goals.
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Johnathan Hatzis (Jodi Lundmark, tbnewswatch.com)
Born a congenital amputee, Johnathan Hatzis has never let his disability get in the way of achieving his goals.

“When I was young, I was fitted with prosthetics and from then on I just lived a normal life,” said the 18-year-old Thunder Bay man who has lived his life without legs.

“I haven’t seen it as any kind of disability in any way because I haven’t let it stop me from doing anything I want to do,” he added.

That strength and perseverance along with a willingness to give back to the community earned the recent Hammarskjold High School graduate one of 19 Terry Fox Humanitarian Awards this year.

Hatzis is heading to Lakehead University in the fall to study computer science and the scholarship, which covers $7,000 per year of education, will allow him to focus solely on his studies.

“It takes away all the worries you might have of financial needs, having to work extra to make deadlines for tuition costs,” he said. “I’ll be able to get a bit more time in actually schooling instead of having to work all the time.”

The application process was rigorous and Hatzis said with thousands of people applying across the country, he didn’t have high expectations, but he’s proud to be a recipient of the award and admires Fox’s legacy.

“He did so many things in his life that have helped people for so many years now and just being able to be part of what he’s done and put my part into helping the community makes me feel really good as a person,” he said.

Hatzis said when faced with a disability there are two ways to look at it. One is to see it as a disadvantage and try to look for pity. Or you could go the extra mile.

“As soon as (Fox) saw that, he saw it as another challenge to try to overcome,” he said. “He knew he was doing something special but the way he impacted people in his life, it was tremendous.”

In addition to local community work, Hatzis has also volunteered with the War Amps of Canada, travelling to seminars and helping kids, who are faced with similar disabilities.





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