There seem to be plenty of cross country journeys this summer, but try doing it in a wheelchair...on life support...for a world record.
That's just what Matt Eddy's trying to do. The 33-year-old muscular dystrophy patient rolled through Wichita Monday. He started his 3,300-mile journey with his therapist and a photographer on the east coast in June, and he hopes to roll into Long Beach, California, in October.
"I want to see the country," says Eddy, "and there's no better way than at six miles an hour."
Eddy is trying to raise money for his charity, Matt's Place. He wants to build affordable housing for severely disabled people like himself.
Eddy says his time in an institution 10 years ago convinced him he needed to help others find independent living. After only a few months in the home, he proved everyone around him wrong by finding his own place to live.
Besides the personal advantages, Eddy points to the financial benefits. His care would cost taxpayers approximately $1 million annually if he was still in an institution. Living on his own costs roughly a third of that.
"No one like me should be stuck living in a hospital, institution, or a nursing home," says Eddy. "It's just no quality of life."
Ron Steenbruggen, Eddy's ventilation therapist, says he never thought the journey would be possible. Of course, Eddy proved him wrong.
"If he trusts us enough to take care of him going across country on the side of the road, then there's no reason why people can't live in their own apartment," says Steenbruggen.
This is actually Eddy's second cross country trip. He accomplished the feat two years ago, and he's bringing a photographer along so he can qualify for the Guinness Book of World Records.
