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Brace your hearts and buckle up for a conversation with Kathy Ramsey, a human who shares honestly about the complexity of both physical and emotional trauma recovery.  

Kathy was run over by a truck 2.5 years ago which broke her back, pelvis, all her ribs, her left leg and shoulder and had a stroke due to massive internal blood loss. By the time she arrived at the hospital via ambulance, they were unable to get a blood pressure reading as she had so little blood left in her body. 

Kathy Ramsey has lived many lives: reporter, refugee lawyer, mother, trauma survivor. 

As a journalist, she covered intrepid subjects such as the Yukon Quest, a 1,000 mile dog-sled race from Dawson City, Yukon to Fairbanks, Alaska. She then decided to go to law school at McGill University during which time she became involved in a volunteer coalition that helped get 100s of Palestinians in Montreal legal immigration status. A few years after law school, she moved to Toronto for love, opened her own immigration and refugee law practice, had 2 children, and was thrilled to get a position at the Refugee Law Office of Legal Aid Ontario. And then on August 31, 2017, after a long day at work, she was riding her bike to meet her husband and children at Christie Pitts pool when she was run over by a dump truck in downtown Toronto. She spent nearly 5 months in hospital, and has spent the last 2 years navigating the peaks and valleys of recovery, finding community in a group of fellow women trauma survivors who have helped her to feel not so alone in the crushing isolation of trauma recovery.

While in law school, she lived and worked in Bourj el Barajneh and Shatila Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, and interned at the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. She's been involved in migrant justice work in Canada, with Solidarity Across Borders and the Immigration Legal Committee.

Thank you Kathy. I'm so glad you're here.

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