This month’s spotlight is Madeleine-Camille, a new resident of Florida! A few years ago, Madeleine-Camille received an Active Fund grant for a Force RX handcycle. 

Before Madeleine-Camille started handcycling, fatigue often limited her ability to participate fully in everyday activities. Once she began handcycling, that began to shift. As she explains, “Handcycling has increased my stamina, strength, helped with some core strengthening, and also been a great mental release.”

Those physical gains quickly translated into independence. “I now live independently and I’m able to because I handcycle.  I can wash the dishes, cook food, do laundry, and clean because I handcycle. I can go places with the bus and metro and navigate all the crazy sidewalks because I handcycle,” she shared. The endurance she built also carries into sport. “I’m better at maneuvering a tennis wheelchair … I’m better at sled hockey… [all] because I handcycle. Pretty much everything is better because of handcycling.”

A key part of that progress was having her own properly fitted handcycle. Owning her equipment allowed her to train safely, consistently, and without limitations on access. As Madeleine-Camille put it, “My own handcycle that’s properly fitted to me has allowed me to train and ride without injuring myself due to non-fitting equipment, and also I can make whatever modifications I need and want to it. I’m not limited by how long I’m allowed to borrow equipment for.”

That consistency led to a higher level of fitness that opened doors for Madeleine-Camille. She now plays wheelchair tennis regularly, using handcycling to support her endurance and speed. The upper body strength she developed also “helped significantly with being able to spend an entire week learning to sit-ski in Colorado last winter.”

Most significantly, the endurance built through handcycling presented her with professional opportunities. “Because of the higher level of fitness, it helped to get me independent and more productive in daily life and work,” she said. That foundation made a major life transition possible, moving 1,000 miles away down to Florida to work for Kalagon, a wheelchair seating company, as a full-time seamstress, sewing machine operator, and fabric and textile designer. Without [my handcycle], I doubt that I would have run into the opportunity, much less physically be able to,” she says. 

Today, Madeleine-Camille continues to ride her handcycle, build endurance, and apply that strength across every part of her life. Her story reflects the long-term impact of access to properly fitted adaptive equipment, where increased stamina leads not only to sport participation but to independence, career growth, and new opportunities.