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The Oakville Beaver, W e d n e sd a y N o v e m b e r 10, 2004 - B3 Sons understood they were loved (C o n tin u e d fro m p a g e B 1 ) Ron Kuzyk · Oakville Beaver Form er C anadian heavyweight boxing ch am p G eorge C huvalo puts his right h and over his h e a rt to em phasize a point d u rin g his speech M onday at W hite O aks. "This is the most important time in your life...when you really become the architects of your future," he said, adding that deci sions made today will affect the students forever. Chuvalo, who was never knocked out or knocked down in 97 professional bouts, relentlessly chased the heavyweight crown he would never wear and cast a largerthan-life shadow over his sons. At the same time, his family members always understood they were loved, he said, a fact that makes their deep-seated hopelessness all the more upsetting. " 1 tried to be the best parent I could be," he said. "You can only do the best you can." Chuvalo then led the students through a sad narrative in which sons Jesse, George Lee and Steven immersed themselves in the westend Toronto drug scene - including resorting to crime to feed their habits - as their father did every thing in his power to be their guardian angel. Steven, for example, overdosed 15 times during a two-month peri od. Such was the hold heroin had on his loved ones, Chuvalo explained, that George Lee and Steven would "crap their pants" upon seeing the drugs they craved in their dealer's hand. Before attending to their dignity, though, the boys would first shoot up. "Only then would my hand some sons clean themselves up." he said. ``Every time I tell that story I feel sick to my stomach. I don't like to talk about my sons like that." Jesse, the first Chuvalo son to become an addict, put a gun in his mouth only nine months after his introduction to heroin. His suicide, said his father, "sealed the fate of his brothers and his mother." George Lee died with a needle in his arm in a seedy hotel room in 1993. Two days after his funeral an event Steven attended high on heroin - Chuvalo's wife Lynne swallowed the pills she'd kept in her hope chest "for a day when there was no hope," lay down in her son's bed. and died. Steven, just 11 days out of jail, was found in a chair at his sister's apartment, needle in his arm. an unlit cigarette still held between his fingers. "Before my beautiful son could even light a cigarette, he was dead," said Chuvalo, who explained that a month before his death Steven agreed to speak out against drugs to youth. "He wanted to talk to you about so many things...but he was doomed to die." So, in Steven's place, his father travels the country telling young people all the things he knows his son would want them to know, like get an education, foster selfrespect and above all don't begin the downward spiral by smoking and doing drugs. After all. he said, after you dis respect yourself with your first cig arette, it's easier to hold your body and spirit in contempt by trying alcohol, marijuana and worse. "If my son could have seen a glimpse into his future, no way would he have become a drug addict. No way," said Chuvalo. "If my sons were here for 20 seconds they'd tell you doing drugs is insane. The life of an addict is a horrible life." Chuvalo, who received the Order of Canada for his anti-drug efforts, then implored his listeners to "make important decisions at critical points in your life," since mistakes made now can come back to haunt them later. "You have the power to change the course of history of your own family," he said. Chuvalo, now 67 and re-married to a woman with two children, still manages to find joy in the lives o f his daughter Vanessa, his eldest son Mitchell, who teaches high school, and his grandchildren. He is also a steadfast believer in the redemptive power of love. "Love is important to all of us," said Chuvalo, who asked the stu dents to go home, hug their parents and tell them they love them. "I love you ... the most impor tant words in the English lan guage." Please visit Chuvalo's Web site, www.fightagainstdrugs.ca. Halton Healthcare Services welcomes new physiatrist cian specializing in physical medicine and rehabilitation. Originally established in the 1940s to treat brain injury, Halton Healthcare Services' new physiatrist. Dr. spinal cord injury and trau Michael Lang, is a very wel ma, the specialty has now come addition to the medical broadened to include the staff at both its Oakville and treatment of sports and workthe Milton sites, not to men related injuries, m uscu tion the communities these loskeletal injuries (which include back hospitals serve. and shoulder Since jo in ing Halton In this story, original pain), arthritis Healthcare this ly published Oct. 6 in or joint inflam summer. Dr. The Oakville Beaver mation. "The spe Lang has been Weekend, the word working with physiatrist was inadver cialty's fasci patients on an tently changed to psychi nating blend of outpatient atrist, a different branch n e u r o l o g y , basis in the o f medicine from what anatomy and re h a b ilita tio n Dr. Michael Lang prac o r th o p a e d ic s d e p a r t m e n t tices. A physiatrist is a really appealed and inpatients physician specializing in to me because on the Rehab physical medicine and it has such a inter Unit at Oak- rehabilitation. The broad ville-Trafalgar Oakville Beaver apolo related scope. It allows you to M emorial gizes fo r this error. treat the whole Hos pi t a l patient, not just (OTMH). He also sees inpatients at the the patient's symptoms," Milton District Hospital explains Dr. Lang. "You also have the luxury (MDH) at the request of o f spending more time with physicians. A physiatrist is a physi- your patients - delving to the SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER By Zita Taksas-Raponi root of their pain, disability or medical problem, finding unique and creative solu tions. and guiding their reha bilitation. "I see patients in all age groups and treat problems that touch upon many major systems in the body." (S e e `P h y s ia tris t' p a g e B 4) ASave Money. Save Energy. 3 0 % O F F * ` O ops - w e goofed on high-efficiency 2-stage DC m otor gas furnaces in-stock reg. price 5 3 9 5 s; sale price from $2754* Expires Nov. 20/04 Call For FREE In-Home Estimate Pna 8 bastd on started insttlaftcn Cannot be combned wfri any other antof promocon Pctue mx aiacfy as s ta r A tla n tis www.atlantisair.com r '/ M in ir in u iim · . c i o c d i az - c c HEATING · AIR CONDfTIONING FIREPLACES mmmMm 9 0 5 -8 4 5 -4 0 0 9 1040 Speers Rd. Oakville H a Physiatrist Dr. M ichael L ang visits a patient at O akville T rafalg ar M em orial Hospital. 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