Kristy Tymos has been featured many times in this newspaper over the past months.

She is the Malaspina student who, last February, chose to drive back home late on a Saturday night so she could go to church with her family the next morning. Sadly she fell asleep behind the wheel, drove off the road, and woke up a quadriplegic.

I couldn't read any of the stories that followed her accident because they made me feel so bad. I had met Kristy as a young teenager and I have known her mom and her grandmother for many years.

Just the thought of this beautiful, young, physically active, student having her life so dramatically restricted was more than I could bear. Then I met her last Sunday afternoon and found the experience to be overwhelmingly inspiring rather than depressing.

Kristy remains a beautiful, young, active, student, a student who is leading a full, rewarding life. She just happens to be a quadriplegic.

When I dropped by her home to visit, my primary goal was to give her an opportunity to thank the more than fifty companies, organizations, and individuals who donated their time, materials, and money to build a wheel-chair-accessible addition on her mom's house. This addition gives her as much freedom and independence as possible.

That dozens of people enthusiastically lined up to help didn't surprise me at all.

Given a chance, most of us, I believe, will do whatever we can to help others in need. That human tendency is especially true here in Nanaimo.

You may remember Casey Gallagher whose car accident led to her becoming a quadriplegic, and how the Knights of Columbus led a team of community businesses who built a wheel-chair-accessible addition on her mom's home.

In Kristy's case, the Daybreak Rotary Club and their Past President, Bob Wall, coordinated the team of over fifty small business and other supporters; Neighbourhood Heroes all.

So there I was last Sunday afternoon with pen in hand ready to write the story of how the business community and others pulled together to provide a home for Kristy; however, as soon as I met her, I found it difficult to focus on anything but her.

That said, acknowledging such selfless community support is important as it inspires more of the same in the future.Thankfully although we don't have space in this column to do so, each has been acknowledged by the family with a personal letter and a full page newspaper ad.

Discharged from G. F. Strong Rehabilitation Centre just a few weeks ago, Kristy has settled into her new home, celebrated Christmas and the New Year, registered for a psychology course at Malaspina U-C, and created an active social life with friends and family.

She says she feared that her life might have become boring but in fact she has been so busy, she has had to demonstrate a fair amount of self-discipline to make sure that she stays on top of her required reading and report writing for her psychology course.

I'm trying to think of what impressed me most about this young woman, young enough to be my granddaughter, and yet mature enough for us to sit for an hour or so sipping a cup of tea and chatting.

I suspect the most important lesson I learned from her, we learned from Robin Dutton, last week's Neighbourhood Hero - The importance of taking one small step at a time as we move into our future.

I would like to believe that, as Kristy is doing, I could apply that lesson under such trying circumstances.

Whatever she ends up doing, I'm confident Kristy Tymos will inspire all those who get to know her along the way. My best guess is that that will be hundreds of thousands if not millions of people.

This young woman is going to make a difference in this world.