Thomas E. Smith

Thomas E. Smith is the first person in medical history to be paralyzed three separate times and recover. Growing up in Massachusetts as a rising hockey star, Smith signed a Junior A hockey contract after high school to best position himself to receive a collegiate scholarship. However, on Aug. 2, 2008, he sustained a paralyzing injury that many thought would end his promising career. After months of rehabilitation at The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, the world’s most comprehensive research center for paralysis, he made a one-in-a-million recovery and was cleared by doctors to return to the ice.

Then on Oct. 1, 2009, it happened again: Smith sustained a second life-changing injury while playing hockey, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. Doctors said Smith had a better chance of winning the lottery five times in a row than having two completely unrelated paralyzing injuries. On the morning of Jan. 11, 2010, while driving to physical therapy, he was involved in a car accident and was paralyzed for a third time. In just 17 months, Smith had sustained three separate paralyzing injuries and once more faced the fight of his life.

In pursuit of a new purpose, he co-founded The Thomas E. Smith Foundation, a non-profit volunteer organization that provides emotional and financial assistance to the paralysis community. To date, The Thomas E. Smith Foundation has donated over $450,000 to individual patient sponsorships and paralysis research.

In 2013, he founded The Look-Up Line, ice hockey’s first warning track, and received patents for his invention in both the United States and Canada. In 2015, Smith became the first person with paralysis to cycle the eastern seaboard, biking over 2,100 miles from Boston, Massachusetts to Miami, Florida. He raised $100,000 for the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis as a result of his journey. In 2018, he became the first person who has been paralyzed multiples times to complete the Boston Marathon without the use of a wheelchair. On April 15th, 2024, Smith completed the Boston Marathon for a sixth time since being paralyzed. He currently serves as the President and Co-Founder of his foundation and the Co-Chair: Massachusetts Hockey Safety Committee at Mass Hockey.