ENGLEWOOD – To say Allyson Mallory is determined would be an understatement.
“I’ve always just been somebody who’s been very goal oriented and at that point my goals just had to change,” she said seated in her room at Craig Hospital Friday.
Mallory, the principal of Ralph Moody Elementary in Littleton, was in a snowboard accident Dec. 23 at Keystone’s Area 51.
“I hit a feature that had two ramps and a rail that connected the two ramps. I went too quickly, overshot it and it essentially threw me into a back flip and I landed on my back,” Mallory said.
“The minute I hit I knew I was paralyzed and I literally said to myself, ‘you’re paralyzed’ and I just accepted it. There’s really no other option.”
She was taken to St. Anthony’s and rushed into surgery, but she would later discover she was paralyzed from the waist down.
She transferred to Craig to recover on Dec. 28.
“I have an end goal…and that end goal is to walk again whether it’s in braces or on my own and in order for me to do that, I can’t have any other attitude.”
Mallory said doctors told her you make the most progress in the first six to nine months following an injury like this, so she has kicked into high gear.
She spends free time over the weekend at the hospital gym.
“It doesn’t benefit me to stay in bed for a day or for a month thinking about my injury or how it’s impacted me or what I don’t have because that’s one day or one month that I don’t have working towards my goal,” she said. “And I won’t give that up.”
Mallory said the support she’s received from her school community and the community in general has been overwhelming.
A fundraising website set up for her recovery has already received more than $62,000.
She says on difficult nights when she’s having trouble sleeping because her back is still healing from surgery, she logs on and reads comments on both her Facebook and the You Caring site for inspiration.
Besides walking on her own, Mallory also said she hopes to return to school before the end of the school year.
