Bean Gill

Inclusion warrior recognized for dedication to breaking barriers

When Bean Gill (Medical Radiologic Technology '03) woke up one morning in 2012 with excruciating pain in her lower back, she couldn’t have predicted how life was about to change.    

On vacation with friends at the time, she couldn’t move her leg, and soon the other. Within 10 minutes, she was paralyzed from the waist down – the result of a virus attacking her spinal cord, she would later learn.    

As she faced her new reality, Gill grappled with feelings of depression and anger. “One of the big questions was, ‘Why me? What did I do to deserve this?’” Gill recalls. “I didn’t want to be the girl in the wheelchair.”   

As a 30-year-old x-ray technologist who enjoyed sports and a busy social life, Gill was forced to confront unconscious biases and stereotypes she’d developed before becoming paralyzed.    

“I am not proud to say, but at that time, my view of people with disabilities was that they were a burden,” she admits.   

Today, Gill is working to shatter those biases and stereotypes in every way she can, whether that’s as a public speaker, reality TV star, runway model or the co-founder of the ReYu Paralysis Recovery Centre, a non-profit that empowers recovery and redefines possibilities for individuals living with neurologic conditions.  

Work continues for an “Inclusion Warrior”   

Though Gill is proud to call herself an “inclusion warrior” today, she didn’t immediately seek to become a change-maker. A pivotal moment came 7 months after her spinal injury, when she met a woman who couldn’t move anything below her neck.   

“She said to me, ‘I’d be happy if I could move a finger,’” Gill remembers. “That was the day I became grateful for everything I have, instead of being sad for everything I’ve lost.”   

That change in perspective inspired Gill to speak publicly about accessibility and inclusion nearly 10 years ago – first to local schools, then as an ambassador with the Rick Hansen Foundation. Since 2022, she’s expanded her reach, using her extroverted personality and humour to advocate across Canada and the U.S. In 2024, she was named co-master of ceremonies at the Canadian Congress on Disability Inclusion.   

“I’m a firm believer that the way you change the world is one person at a time, one mind at a time,” Gill says.    

She also starred in the CBC docuseries, Push, which ran for 2 seasons starting in 2023. The unscripted show followed Gill and a group of friends, who call themselves the “wheelie peeps,” as they experienced life, including dating, parenthood, travelling and skydiving.    

By allowing viewers into their lives, the friends hoped to show that wheelchair users are “just like anyone else,” Gill says. “The way you talk to somebody with a disability is the same way you talk to somebody without a disability.”    

Although Gill says she’s pleased attitudes are shifting – however slowly – more work needs to be done, especially in areas of physical accessibility and stigma in the workplace.   

Gill’s efforts to break down barriers have been recognized locally and nationally. In 2019, she received an RBC Canadian Women Entrepreneur Award and, together with her ReYu co-founder, Nancy Morrow, earned the Global News Woman of Vision Award. Gill was also awarded a Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal in 2023 and a King Charles III Coronation Medal in 2024.  

Today, as she reflects on her journey, Gill says the answer to the question she posed 13 years ago – ‘why me?’ – has never been clearer.   

“I was the one who was meant to lead this charge.”  

Story photos supplied by Bean Gill.

Alumni Award of Excellence

The Alumni Award of Excellence recognizes the significant contributions made in recent years by NAIT alumni to their profession or community.  

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