If there’s one thing Cheryl wants you to know, it’s this:
Don’t ever quit.
She says it with the kind of certainty that comes from experience. Cheryl has spent much of her life navigating severe rheumatoid arthritis, countless surgeries and more than her share of setbacks. But she has also learned that progress doesn’t happen by giving up.
“You can do it,” she says. “Don’t let yourself think ‘I can’t do it.’ You can do it. Don’t ever quit.”
Right now, Cheryl is putting those words into practice.
She is working toward getting her life back.
At 55, Cheryl has lived with severe rheumatoid arthritis since her late 20s. Before her diagnosis, she was working full time, playing on three baseball teams and living an active life. Then, seemingly overnight, everything changed.
Since 2004, she has undergone surgery after surgery — including replacements of both knees, her left hip and right shoulder, as well as fusions of both ankles.
Then, in February 2026, Cheryl experienced another major setback.
After heading out in her power wheelchair following a snowfall, Cheryl made it home safely. But as she stopped outside her apartment door, she turned off her wheelchair and unfastened her seatbelt. The chair unexpectedly moved backwards, sending her forward onto the ground.
She knew she was hurt.
The fall left Cheryl with a broken left humerus, a fractured right tibia and a fractured patella beneath her left knee replacement. She spent weeks in casts and braces, followed by months of limited mobility.
Cheryl attending Hope In Motion for the first time
And for Cheryl, there was one particularly frustrating part of her recovery.
While recovering in an acute care hospital, she received physiotherapy three times a week, with the focus at that stage of her journey being medical stabilization and recovery rather than rehab.
Cheryl knew that wasn’t enough.
Having spent years undergoing surgeries and rehabilitation, she knew her body needed more movement, more therapy and more work if she was going to get back to the life she wanted.
So, she advocated for herself.
After her elbow replacement surgery in August, Cheryl made it clear that she needed intensive rehab.
She told her care team, “I need ongoing physiotherapy three times a day. I need you to push this arm.”
That advocacy brought Cheryl to Hotel Dieu Shaver.
And when she arrived, she found a team willing to push her.
She met physiotherapist Dan on her first day.
“I came here Wednesday. Dan was already pushing and pulling my arm out,” Cheryl says.
After nearly five months of barely being able to move her arm, it wasn’t exactly comfortable.
“I was like, ‘Can I yell?’ He goes, ‘No.’
“I go, ‘Can I cry?’ He’s said, ‘No.’
“I asked, ‘Can I have tears in my eyes?’ He finally answered, ‘Yeah.’
“I told him, ‘Good, because they’re already there.’”
Cheryl laughs when she tells the story now.
Because she knows what Dan was doing.
He was pushing her to do what she came to Hotel Dieu Shaver to do: move.
And she did.
After months of being unable to use her arm, Cheryl can now lift it significantly higher. Her rehabilitation includes physiotherapy, occupational therapy, cycling and recreational activities.
“I’m getting a good 40 to 45 minutes on the bike,” she says. “And I’m also painting rocks with Michelle, and I’m in the recreational activities. So, I’m keeping busy. And you have to do that.”
Cheryl credits the entire rehabilitation team for helping her reclaim her independence, including physio team Dan and Meagan, occupational therapist Nancy, recreation therapists, and the many nurses and support staff who have encouraged her every step of the way.
The goal isn’t perfection.
Cheryl knows her rheumatoid arthritis may mean she won’t regain every bit of mobility she once had.
Her goal is to regain as much independence as possible and get back to the things that make her life meaningful.
“I want to get back into volunteering for Special Olympics,” she says.
More than anything, she wants to get back to her life.
“I’ve spent over five months dealing with this accident. And it’s a long time.”
Cheryl credits the team at Hotel Dieu Shaver with helping her move toward that goal.
“The physiotherapy team here is great,” she says. “They work with me and it’s great.”
But Cheryl isn’t just focused on her own recovery.
She wants to encourage other people going through rehab to keep going, even on the days when progress feels slow.
At the end of every day, Cheryl writes down at least five positive things that happened that day — something she learned during an earlier rehab experience.
“Then in six months, go back and see what you’ve written and you’ll see the change that’s happened to you.”
She’s already seeing that change in herself.
And she celebrated it at Hope in Motion.
After everything Hotel Dieu Shaver has done for her, Cheryl wanted to give something back. She joined patients, graduates, families, staff and community members at this year’s event, raising funds for patient care that have become such an important part of her own journey.
“Shaver has been great to me,” she says. “I wanted to just see what it was like.”
She met other HDS patients and graduates, including Shelley Gilbert, and the two have stayed in touch since.
Cheryl also left Hope in Motion with a new project.
She plans to paint rocks.
Lots of them.
Each one will carry the message that has become so meaningful to her:
Don’t Ever Quit.
She hopes to paint as many as 100 and bring them back to next year’s Hope in Motion.
It’s a very Cheryl way of looking at recovery.
Keep moving.
Keep working.
Keep finding something positive.
And, above all, don’t ever quit.