Paralympian Wins Speaking Award
Story by Michael Seguin
Few people understand the raw, transformative power of storytelling quite like local Paralympic champion and award-winning inspirational speaker Danielle Campo.
And what a story she has. As a child, she was initially thought to be flat-footed—like her father. She was then diagnosed with muscular dystrophy.
“My mother’s world instantly shattered, overcome by fear,” Danielle recalls. “Years of watching the Jerry Lewis telethon taught her that children with muscular dystrophy don’t survive—her dreams slipping away.”
But Danielle, as it happened, was born with a smoldering flame of resilience within her that has burned away every obstacle before her.
Despite countless hours of treatment and painful physiotherapy, Danielle eventually reclaimed her power not on land—but in the water. She was able to achieve a sense of mobility and purpose in the pool that had been denied to her elsewhere.
“The water became my life,” Danielle states. “In the water, I didn’t have a disability. I was free.”
Thanks to this newfound passion for the water, Danielle was able to earn herself 3 Paralympic gold medals, break 8 world records and collect 17 world championship medals.
Danielle credits her mother with helping her ascend to such heights.
“My Mom’s love and courage taught me to push through every struggle,” Danielle states. “Her strength and her faith shaped the person I am and my desire to become a mom.”
Danielle is currently a mom to five children—two stepchildren three biological.
However, in 2021, a severe sepsis infection unfortunately in left Danielle in the hospital bed with only a 10% chance of survival. (This difficult pregnancy formed the basis of her novel, Resurrections: My Will to Survive is Olympian.) During this troubled time, Danielle learned that she’d been wrongfully diagnosed her whole life.
“I, in fact, had spinal muscular atrophy,” Danielle explains. “And now my children had a 50% chance of inheriting it. My three perfect, healthy children. Thoughts of ballet classes and hockey lessons slipping away, because in reality, only one of my children would escape the diagnosis.”
Danielle experienced a whirlwind of grief and anger upon learning about the difficult path her children would have to walk. And perhaps more insidiously: guilt.
But in these depths, Danielle realized that she was perhaps the perfect person to guide her children through their diagnosis.
“As their mother, I will teach them to embrace every strength and every difficult moment,” Danielle states. “So that when the world says no, my babies will say: ‘Watch me go.’ Bravery as a mother is carrying the weight of these sacrifices and these struggles and rising with love and strength.”
Danielle’s story—which she shared as “A Mother’s Love”—earned her the Inspirational Speaker of the Year title at Speaker Slam’s 8th Annual Grand Slam—The Inspirational Speaking Finals. The event, held at Toronto’s CBC Glenn Gould Studio, featured the top 14 speakers from across North America competing for a $5,000 cash prize and a prize package worth up to $50,000. She also took home the National Hero Award from Canada’s Walk of Fame.
And now, Danielle is not just sharing her strength and her resilience with her children. She has successfully launched her own coaching business.
“My main passion is sharing my journey and connecting with people,” Danielle explains. “I help people find their strength in their struggles. To turn their pain into purpose.”
Although initially reluctant to take to the stage, Danielle soon warmed to the idea.
“I joined into a community called Speaker’s Slam—a speaking competition,” Danielle recalls. “I kept kicking the idea around. ‘Do I want to do this? Do I not want to do this?’ But I realized that it was my story! And who’s going to tell me if my story is good or not? It was all about opening up to a network and sharing my story in a different way. And as a former athlete I loved the adrenaline of competing!”
It was then that Danielle first discovered the true power stories contain. After winning her competition, people started approaching her in droves about how helpful and how impactful sharing her struggles truly were.
“My story was helping people achieve their best versions of themselves,” Danielle explains. “So, it was exciting to ride that through the year. This all led me into embarking on my own coaching practice.” Danielle stresses about how the vulnerability of sharing one’s story allow others to bridge the gap between their experiences.
“I love being able to share my story with people,” Danielle states. “I always find it so unique that every audience connects with different parts of your story. Whatever you’re going through in your own journey, there’s a part of my story people will connect with. I love that moment when you see all these different eyes lighting up. They suddenly become part of my journey, which then makes me a part of their journey. My biggest tagline is that we need to connect before we collect.”
A common theme that Danielle continually elaborates upon is resilience—a subject she is intimately well-versed in.
“We all hear about resilience,” Danielle states. “We all understand what we need to do. But we’re often missing the how. What is that first step you take forward? So, a lot of what I do is sit with people, identify their strengths, and find out what their “how” truly is. It’s all about helping people become the best version of themselves.”
And while life can indeed present many obstacles, Danielle stresses the need to accept our various hurdles and still find joy in the process.
“We’re going to have struggles,” Danielle explains. “We’re going to have hard times. It’s not going to be easy. Resilience, to me, is about leaning in and asking ourselves what these struggles are meant to teach us. How can we use this pain for a greater purpose? We can take those difficult moments and push through them. But at the same time, it’s okay to reach out for help.”
And while Danielle is enjoying these newfound successes, she often returns to who she is truly pushing herself for: her five children.
“My promise to my children is that I will be brave,” Danielle states. “We have to embrace our struggles. Even though I may not like them or find the strength in them in that moment, I still have to be brave enough to take that first step forward. I have to inspire them to be the best version of themselves. That award-winning speech was an anthem for my children. It was me telling them that they’ll be okay because we’re together.”
Information about Danielle and her story can be found at daniellecampo.com. Her novel, Resurrections: My Will to Survive is Olympian, is still available on Amazon.
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