From the basketball court, to a hospital bed and back to the courts, Antrone Moore has been a community activist to raise stroke awareness wherever he goes, including Monday’s city council meeting.
Moore, a Chicago native, moved to Bowling Green in January. His cousin Damien Womack was Moore’s main draw to the city. Womack has been part of the Bowling Green community since 1999 when he attended the University. He graduated with a business degree in 2004, and he is now a manager at Kroger on North Main Street.
Moore began his community activism through his involvement in The Heart Association and The Stroke Association in Maine, where he attended college and played basketball at the University of Maine at Augusta.
“He is transferring that energy from Maine to this community,” Womack said of his cousin.
Womack and Moore are trying to raise awareness of these specific health conditions because the issues run in their family. Moore himself suffered from a massive hemorrhage stroke, which left him in a coma for three weeks. Womack said doctors saw Moore as “a lost cause” and thought he would never walk or talk again.
“Here he is standing in front of you,” Womack said. “This man is able to run up and down a basketball court. He’s able to lift his arms … He’s able to look you in the eye and say ‘hello’ and smile at you, which is remarkable.”
Before his stroke, Moore was a professional basketball player, traveling the world to play the game he loved. He has started two AAU basketball teams and has been active in the communities where he’s lived in several other ways as well.
“What strikes me as remarkable is he’s done a lot of these things after his disability,” Womack said. “Right now he’s a disabled man, but if you look at him you could never tell, ever, because he’s a survivor. He’s a warrior. He fights.”
Moore and Womack also have a close friend, who recently, only days after her 21st birthday, had a minor stroke.
“It’s important because there are very few resources for people like that here,” Womack said.
The friend had to go to the University of Toledo Medical Center for treatment after her stroke. Womack said she was scared and felt alone.
“We are two people trying to make a difference in this community,” Womack said. “We don’t want people to feel like they have nowhere to turn, like they have no resource.”
Some of the specific statistics he shared with city council Monday night included: over 130,000 people die from strokes every year, over 700,000 people have a stroke every year and over 600,000 of them are first time stroke sufferers.
“It is my hope that this community gets behind us and tries to raise the awareness for people who are going through similar situations … We want to give the people who are suffering in silence a voice,” Womack said.
Moore thanked Bowling Green because he said it’s hard to comprehend and interpret a lot of things, but he is “a walking testimony.”
Moore just finished writing his book titled “A Walking Testimony” after working on it for three years.
“I had so many people that tried to manipulate me and tell me that I couldn’t do it, but with a higher power, you can do anything. Anything is possible,” he said.
Moore and Womack are working together in raising awareness about strokes and to publish Moore’s book. The two can be found on various social media outlets as well as at their website www.whatdoidesire.com.
