Meet Claire, the 2024 Champion of the Alberta Children's Hospital Foundation

Claire has cerebral palsy and though she cannot walk or talk, she is intellectually intact and highly aware.
Her brain has been, in essence, trapped inside her body. Now, thanks to specialists at the Alberta Children’s Hospital and community-funded state-of-the-art technology called Brain Computer Interface (BCI), she is learning to use her mind to do things her body cannot. By wearing a special headset, Claire concentrates on certain words that signal the BCI technology to control a variety of devices.
For the first time in her life, and using only her mind, she can switch on toys, play video games, shoot her brothers with a dart gun, and roll a mechanical dice during family game nights.
Claire is our 2024 Champion, part of the Children’s Miracle Network Champions Program that celebrates the life-saving, life-changing care taking place at children’s hospitals across the country. As Champion, Claire will be the official ambassador for the Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation and represent the 100,000 kids cared for at the hospital each year.