Virtually unable to walk two years ago due to his ailing hips, a 16-year-old has just achieved the feat of being named to a team of rising stars in Quebec basketball.
Victim of load shedding during the COVID-19 pandemic, Christophe Paré was finally able to undergo hip replacement surgery in 2021.
Like many Quebecers, he had to wait nearly a year before going under the knife.
Suffering from a rare childhood disease, his joint was necrotic and caused intense pain that forced him to remain inactive.
Photo Agence QMI, Thierry Laforce
The 16-year-old is now convinced that anything is possible.
The operation allowed the 6ft 10in young man to end his suffering and achieve his dream of playing basketball. “Anything is possible, you just have to be patient and work hard!” » launches the teenager, the smile split to the ears.
He wants this message to be heard by other young people who are struggling with health problems.
Not only has Christophe Paré returned to the sport, but he is even one of the players chosen for one of the two all-star teams on the Quebec circuit who will face off this weekend in Montreal for the Game Point All- Starweekend.
A student in Secondary V, he was also recruited by Dawson College, in Montreal, to continue his sports career next year.
Learn to walk once more
“We must always keep our dreams and not forget that anything can happen in the space of two years,” he adds.
Photo provided by Isabelle Melançon
Christophe Paré two years ago, before entering the operating room for his hip replacement surgery.
But the last two years have not been easy for the young man.
He had to completely relearn how to walk following his hip surgery. Then it was fitness. He was starting from afar and had to make up for lost time.
Originally from L’Assomption, Christophe Paré has even agreed to leave his loved ones in recent months to live with a host family in Saint-Lambert, in order to join the Durocher College D1 basketball team.
The “match of his life”
Ironically, his last playoff game came two years to the day following his surgery. It was also “the game of his life”.
“I mightn’t walk, I dreamed of playing basketball, but I didn’t have the possibility because of my physique and, in two years, I fulfilled my dream and I played basketball with a team that I love. , I mightn’t have asked for better! “, insists the young man, who still struggles to believe what is happening to him.
The motivation of more
Deprived of sport for several years due to his illness, the teenager is convinced that the hell he went through will finally have given him additional strength to redouble his efforts and surpass himself.
“When you start from a dream that you didn’t have the opportunity to accomplish and you are given the opportunity to play basketball and perform at the level you want, that’s where the motivation , we have more than the others, that’s for sure. »
Christophe Paré’s prostheses have a lifespan of 40 or 50 years. He therefore has several years ahead of him to concentrate on his passion, before thinking regarding the next operation.
Photo Agence QMI, Thierry Laforce
The 6-foot-10 youngster dreams of playing for an NCAA team.
And now that he has achieved a dream, the next goal is big: play for an American university team in the NCAA. We wish him good luck.
