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Ottawa scientist named as one of Canada's most inspiring immigrants
Ottawa scientist named as one of Canada's most inspiring immigrants

CTV News

time11 hours ago

  • Health
  • CTV News

Ottawa scientist named as one of Canada's most inspiring immigrants

A local Scientist at the Ottawa Heart Institute has been named one of the most inspiring immigrants in Canada. A local scientist at the Ottawa Heart Institute has been named as one of Canada's most inspiring immigrants. Born and raised in Santiago, Chile, Dr. Emilio Alarcón was among 25 other recipients recognized from around the country as part of a national awards program celebrating immigrant success stories. 'We live in times where immigration is being vilified. Certainly, this is not only an award for me, but for anyone who comes to this country as an immigrant. It's a big responsibility, but at the same time, it was very rewarding and exciting. It was a memento in my life to be honest with you,' he told CTV Morning Live on Monday. Alarcón works as a scientist in the division of cardiac surgery at the Ottawa Heart Institute and is an associate professor at the University of Ottawa. He has published more than 80 articles in peer-reviewed journals, several book chapters, and edited two books on regenerative medicine and nanomaterials. He moved to the nation's capital with his family in 2009 for a postdoctoral position at the University of Ottawa. He says getting to where he got to didn't come easily, as he faced many of the issues new immigrants do when arriving in a new country. 'When I first came to Canada, I had to learn the language. I wasn't able to speak or understand or even write it. it took me awhile. It was very difficult,' he said. 'It was a long road, but looking back it was supposed to be. Immigration is not something easy, but you take it the way it goes.' Alarcón's research focuses on developing novel and biocompatible materials to repair heart tissue after heart attacks and restore damaged organs. 'In my lab, we work in tissue engineering, so we are fabricating artificial tissues and organs to repair, of course the heart, but we also do the skin and the cornea, so we do any type of soft tissues,' he said. 'We're using new tools and strategies to reveal that, so it's highly needed. You will be surprised by the number of people who need that every single day.' Alarcón also started a training program to bring students with disabilities into the biomedical and medical research space. 'Just to give you a number, around 30 per cent of the Canadian population have a disability and people like myself, I have autism, we are underrepresented in biomedical and medical research, so we're working together with 14 colleagues across Canada to really bring that talent into the picture,' he said. While Alarcón has been highly recognized for his work, he says the biggest reward Canada gave him is his son. 'He is the gift that Canada gave to me. He is the gift that I work everyday to pass along,' he said. He said gets the pride in his work at the Heart Institute from being able to change people's lives everyday. 'I'm reminded and humbled that we're doing science, not for our benefit, but to help someone else in the spirit that one day people will get that extra one minute,' he said. 'When you understand how precious time is on this planet, and how precious you being with your family is and the ones you love, you change forever. What I do is not for my own benefit, it's for my community. To build communities and to help others.'

I was born without limbs and adopted by Mormons - they wanted me to be a motivational speaker, but all I wanted to do was dance
I was born without limbs and adopted by Mormons - they wanted me to be a motivational speaker, but all I wanted to do was dance

Daily Mail​

time27-07-2025

  • Entertainment
  • Daily Mail​

I was born without limbs and adopted by Mormons - they wanted me to be a motivational speaker, but all I wanted to do was dance

As starts in life go, Briel Adams-Wheatley didn't have the best; born with a rare condition which meant her arms and legs didn't develop in the womb, she was abandoned by her parents when she was just a baby. But fast forward 26 years later, and Mrs Adams-Wheatley is now regarded as one of the most inspiring influencers on social media, with millions of followers across her Instagram and TikTok accounts. Fans avidly watch her makeup tutorials and leave thousands of likes and impressed comments on videos of her dancing—yes, really—as she shows off a natural sense of rhythm which many able-bodied people could only dream of. With the support of a (huge) loving family behind her, she's happily married, and living her best, authentic life after coming out as a transgender woman two years ago. It's an incredible trajectory, and one which wouldn't sound out of place in a fairytale or Charles Dickens novel. Infant Mrs Adams-Wheatley was tiny, vulnerable and facing an uncertain future at the mercy of the Brazilian adoption system in her birth city of São Paulo when her adoptive mother overheard of her plight as she shopped in a supermarket in Salt Lake City, Utah. Mrs Adams-Wheatley told Mail Online: 'She was seven months pregnant, but when she heard my story she felt an instant connection to me. She knew that I was supposed to be her kid. 'She went home and she prayed about it, and she received her own revelation that it was supposed to happen.' Mrs Adams-Wheatley's mother, a devout Mormon, claims that she was visited by Angel Gabriel as she prayed for guidance, and the next day she confidently told her husband that they had a baby waiting for them... 6,000 miles away. And, in honour of the spiritual being who had visited her, the child would be called Gabriel. However, her husband, who worked at a Seminary Institute—a religious school which teaches members of the Latter Day Saints Church about scripture—had his doubts, and for good reason. 'He was like "are you crazy? We already have 11 children. There's no way we can support one that has no arms and legs with all the medical attention and everything they're gonna need",' laughs Mrs Adams-Wheatley. But after praying it over, and receiving a vision of their unborn, twelfth, child and the mysterious Brazilian baby growing up together as brothers, he agreed that they needed to adopt him. 'To start with the adoption agency tried to block it,' she says. 'They thought that my parents already had too many kids and didn't have the right finances to support my needs. 'But eventually the adoption agency came around. They said "this is the perfect family for this baby. They've been in the hospital now for nine months, and they need all the stimulation they can get. What could be better than a family with 11 kids?"' It wasn't long before Mrs Adams-Wheatley had swapped the frenetic energy of Brazil's largest city for a different sort of chaos, and she began her new life as the second youngest of thirteen kids. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Briel Adams Wheatley (@no_limbs_) But while you might think having so many siblings would make life a breeze for the youngster, her mother banned them from helping her, instilling in the young Briel a ferocious sense of independence which continues to drive her to this day. She said: 'She told my siblings that they weren't allowed to do things for me and that I needed to figure out how to do it myself. 'A lot of people looking in thought that was really rude. 'But now, being a successful 26-year-old who is married, and has their own job and income, I have nothing but the deepest gratitude for my mum and all the tough love that she gave me when I was younger. 'She made sure that I would be able to live the life that I truly wanted in the end, instead of one that was taken care of by other people around me.' Mrs Adams-Wheatley was born with Hanhart Syndrome, an incredibly rare genetic condition which affects less than 1 in 1,000,000 people. She also has scoliosis, which is a sideways curvature of the spine. On paper, you wouldn't expect that she would be a natural dancer, but as she discovered early on, she has a natural talent for movement. She said: 'I always was doing little tricks and spins around the house. 'I had been struggling to make friends at school as people couldn't see beyond my wheelchair, so I decided to audition for the annual talent show.' After performing a routine which she spent months crafting and practicing, she received a standing ovation from her peers, who finally began to see her in a new light. Later, after signing up to dance classes 'to be outside of my wheelchair for at least an hour and a half during the school day', she was encouraged by a friend to join her at auditions for their high school dance team. Mrs Adams-Wheatley and her pal gave their all for the try outs, but her confidence was shattered when she overheard some of the other hopefuls making cruel comments about her. 'I was going out to lunch one day, and I heard two girls behind me saying "they're only going to put them on the team because they're handicapped". 'I went home and I told my mum that I was going to drop out, and she said, "you're not going to quit something you started. You're going to finish it, no matter what the outcome is".' Mrs Adams-Wheatley's mum's tough love approach again got results, and the teen was thrilled to make it on to the team, kickstarting years of hard work, dancing and cheerleading, winning prizes at a state level. Later, her dreams came true when a college offered her a full-ride dance scholarship, but her father forced her to turn it down—he had his own vision for her future. Mrs Adams-Wheatley said: 'My dad told me to turn it down to focus on motivational speaking, which was something that I started when I was 15 years old. 'The first one that I ever did was in front of 10,000 people, at some kind of medical conference. 'My parents always told me growing up that I was going to be a motivational speaker and that that was going to be my set career in life. 'It was something that I could fall into naturally.' Mrs Adams-Wheatley worked the motivational speaker circuit 'for about four or five years' and although she admits she was 'getting pretty good at it', it was making her deeply unhappy. She said: 'I was too good at it, to the point where I was able to mentally shut down and just word vomit what I needed to say on stage. 'Then I'd get backstage and I would start hyperventilating, but then I'd have to go instantly into doing meet and greets, and turn it right back on.' It didn't help that at the time she was struggling to come out as gay to her parents— which was, she says, a stepping stone to admitting she was transgender—and the pressure of feeling like she was living a lie on multiple fronts seriously affected her. 'When the time finally came for me to come out, I told them that I resented them for making me do motivational speaking because they thought that it was my God given talent and something that I had to do, when it really wasn't,' she said. Then, just as her adoptive mother had swooped in and removed her from that São Paulo hospital, another act of God saved Mrs Adams-Wheatley from a torturous fate: the pandemic derailed a scheduled speaking tour which would have seen her visit eight different states. She said: 'It all came crashing down when COVID hit, and that was a blessing in disguise for me, it was my way out. 'I was sitting in my room, and I was like, "wait, what do I do? Though I don't have a college degree, I have a high school diploma, I have no arms and legs. What am I going to do for a job and income now?"' The answer, her sister told her, was a new app called TikTok. 'I didn't know that you could make a living off of it,' she said, quickly adding that she doesn't see herself as an 'influencer'. After sharing some fun content from her wedding 'that went crazy viral', Mrs Adams-Wheatley rapidly gained a following, 'and that kind of just propelled me into doing social media full time.' Posting as @no_limbs_ on both TikTok and Instagram, Mrs Adams-Wheatley shares insights from her day-to-day life. 'The only thing I'm physically not able to do is drive myself,' she said, adding that she successfully runs a household and looks after two dogs while her husband is at work or studying. She's also passionate about using her platform to campaign for better disability rights, and this weekend she is climbing the 41 stairs of the Utah State Capitol in honour of the 35th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Find out more, and donate, here. A quick scroll through her feeds reveals that thousands of people from across the world are delighted by her resilience, abundant energy, resourcefulness, and of course, her true God-given gift... for dancing.

Is this America's most inspiring garden?
Is this America's most inspiring garden?

Times

time21-06-2025

  • Times

Is this America's most inspiring garden?

I am not sure how I first heard about Chanticleer Garden, which is in a suburb of Philadelphia with the prosaic name of Wayne. It's one of those gardener's gardens that you hear dropped into various podcasts or conversations. It has been called 'America's most inspiring garden' and I knew that when my husband, Ian, and I went to visit his cousin in Philly a few years ago, we just had to go via Wayne. 'Wayne?' queried Ian, and I had to admit that it didn't sound like a destination sort of place. As I drove the rental car through deep suburbia, even I began to doubt our mission. I almost punched the air when we found the entrance. It's one of those places: if you think you're lost, you're probably there.

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