Drew Cumpson!

Early this month, SPINALpedia and our friends at Magee Rehab Hospital teamed up to host the first ever Trick Your Ride Halloween Costume Contest. We invited our community to share photos of their Halloween costumes that incorporate their assistive devices. We then asked our followers to weigh in and vote for their favorites on Facebook. And after some fierce competition we have our winner: Drew Cumpson!

Drew won the competition thanks to his incredibly creative “knight atop a horse” costume. SPINALpedia and Magee caught up with Drew to talk to him a little about his background, that amazing costume and his advice for making Halloween awesome, disability or not.

First of all, congratulations! We know you’re the guy with the awesome knight costume, but why don’t you tell us a little more about yourself?

I live in Kingston, Ontario, Canada and am a student at the University of Guelph. I’m studying Hotel and Food Administration under the commerce umbrella, so I have been very busy with school trying to finish up my degree! I’m a big fan of country music and I like to go to as many concerts as I can. It is one of the things I enjoy most!

On May 10, 2011 I was on a humanitarian trip in Lima, Peru when a large wave crashed me off the ocean floor, fracturing my C4 vertebrae leaving me with quadriplegia. I am also on a ventilator due to the lack of diaphragm muscle. Because of that, I use a power chair that I control with an array of head controls.

Tell us more about your incredible knight in shining armor costume. 

It was my idea, thought up with my own creativity! My aunt and grandma helped me make it. We bought some materials, but the rest of the costume was made from materials we already had.

What tips do you have for other wheelchair users who want to make Halloween costumes as awesome as yours?

The biggest thing is creativity. When you have a chair to work with, you can do a lot of different things with it to make it intricate and inventive. Your wheelchair is the best prop you have, and you can make it into whatever you like! The costume I created for this year [pictured below] is even more elaborate than last year’s.

A huge thank you to Drew and all our other contestants in the Trick Your Ride Photo Contest! Your creativity is incredible – thank you for sharing it with us. And from all of us at SPINALpedia and Magee, we want to wish everyone a very happy and safe Halloween!

To learn more about Drew and his story, watch his video.