Our Story

BreakThru SCI is a 501(c)(3) non-profit dedicated to advocating for accelerated access to breakthrough treatments for people living with spinal cord injury (SCI). Our work is rooted in lived-experience with SCI, participation in promising clinical trials, and an understanding of the patient access environment. Our lived-experience has shown us the promise of emerging treatments and combinatorial approaches, and the urgent need for stronger advocacy to ensure the SCI community has a voice in research, regulation, and access.

In August 2022, Clay suffered a severe cervical spinal cord injury in a shallow water diving accident in Lake Michigan. After battling through the throes of the intensive care unit, we were discharged with a fistful of prescriptions to manage the horrific secondary complications of spinal cord injury, and quickly learned that there are no FDA approved pharmacological therapies for restoring lost function. 

The only “prescription” available for potential recovery is physical therapy. 

Immediately after Clay’s injury, our family began searching for the most promising clinical trials, for we knew physical therapy alone was not enough to help Clay recover from this severe injury.

More than one year after his accident, Clay qualified for the NervGen 1B/2A clinical trial at the Shirley Ryan Ability Lab in Chicago, IL. Going into the trial, Clay’s recovery had begun to plateau, but after a mere 3 months taking the NVG-291 peptide, Clay’s recovery improved at an exponential rate, filling our family with hope and a restored belief in science. From that moment on, our family has been advocating for Clay, his cohort-mates, and the broader SCI community to ensure promising restorative therapies are available to those living with SCI. 

At BreakThru SCI, we are fighting for a future where no person with SCI—and no family beside them—must bear being told that there are no treatments for their traumatic condition. We are fighting for a world where SCI recovery is not hopeless.