Rockland Trainer with Epilepsy Overcoming Fitness Barriers

In the latest episode of TVC22's podcast, "Uncovered", join host Bruce de la Cruz, and personal trailer Shaun Kehoe, as they discuss Shaun's difficult medical journey, and how his experiences inspired him to coach students with autism, cerebral palsy, and other disabilities. 

Shaun Kehoe moved to Clarence-Rockland a year ago to be closer with his girlfriend. He already established himself as a personal trainer in the Ottawa area, having gained his certification years prior.

But once Covid hit, his business went down the drain. He had to let a large number of his students go, and struggled to find a way to teach his main clientele: people with disabilities. Some of Shaun’s students are Autistic, have Cerebral Palsy, Asperger’s syndrome, some of them even having multiple special needs. 

With Shaun himself having gone through 9 brain surgeries, and suffering from epilepsy, he felt a connection to his students, and realized that someone needed to guide and encourage them. He believes that the disabled community is under-represented when it comes to sports and fitness, and that there’s a stigma around being a personal trainer to disabled people.  "It's not that people don't want to work with disabilities, it's just that sometimes they're too intimidated by it" 

Shaun is aiming to break down those barriers, and show that training and watching those kids succeed and reach their goals can be so fulfilling and inspiring. Thankfully, Shaun has since been able to go back to teaching his students in person from his garage.

Matthew, one of Shaun’s students who has Cerebral Palsy, says that Shaun was the only trainer his mom could find for him, as no other trainer was qualified. Matthew says that the greatest thing that Shaun has taught him is to never give up.  Having always been very community oriented, he is currently trying to get a fundraiser going. For every Kilo he lifts, he will donate a certain amount of money to charity that he has yet to choose. He is going to get some of his other fitness friends to help as well.

Moving forward, Shaun says he will continue to train to become a better athlete, and a better coach, with becoming a public speaker and inspiring people with his story as his next big step in life.