A young teenager with mild intellectual disability finally fulfilled his dream of playing for a real hockey team, seeing his life upside down, just two years after its inception, due to the epidemic.
When asked how he lived last year, unable to play hockey with his friends, Antoine Guinness couldn’t answer. Not because he doesn’t know what to say, but because he is full of emotion and tears.
“He’s very emotional when we talk about this.” “He’s finding it so hard because he lived just for her,” explains Gabriel Tossignant, the mother of the 15-year-old hockey fanatic.
In 2018, his father, Gaston Genius, created an adapted hockey team for youth with disabilities or autism spectrum disorder. Story made the front page of magazine.
An unexpected dream for Antoine, who was unable to play in an organized league due to his methylmalonic acidemia, which causes him vision problems in addition to a slight intellectual disability.
Photo by QMI, Guy Martel
COVID turned the lives of many young people with intellectual disabilities upside down, including that of Antoine (pictured left), who was finally able to be part of a team thanks to his father’s initiative.
Worry
But the epidemic interrupted the teenager’s dream just before the start of the team’s second season.
He didn’t have many friends outside of hockey, so that had an effect on his behavior, he was more isolated. “He created a lot of pressure on him, to get out of his routine and lose his directions in this way,” says the young man’s father.
This situation does not surprise Dr. Gilles Julian, pediatrician and founder of the foundation of the same name.
The epidemic has had a major impact on young people in the past year. We see dire consequences, especially when it comes to anxiety. The children have literally suffocated. ”
Thankfully, Mr. Guinness kept an icy roof and hockey deck in his backyard for a few years, allowing at least Antoine and his younger brother Laurent to play their favorite sport.
A glimmer of hope
But the teenager was not in his place since he learned that soon he would be able to resume training in the ring.
The Charlesburg Hockey Organization allowed him to train with one of his coaches this week, but only in his family’s bubble.
“It’s the first step. We are keeping our fingers crossed because accelerated grafting will allow [tenue] Next season! »Mrs. Tousignant divorces.
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