A Supportive Family is Key

Interviewer: What did you learn from your experiences in the Canadian Forces? I learned how far I could push myself and not quit. A lot of courses I did were those courses that you push yourself to the extreme and realize that okay I can go a bit further. And I think it helped me now with my injury is just knowing like I said before they’re not going to now control me so I can push past that pain and fight my way out of it and get back on track again. And there’s going to be ups and downs, you know, I got a young daughter at home so that takes a lot of that time away from me thinking about my injuries because now I have to chase her around the house and let her run around and, you know, Melanie, at home, my wife has been great with supporting me through everything and I think that’s the hardest part, is the family and the spouses when someone does suffer with either physical and mental injuries is to have to see their loved ones go through that because friends see it every once in a while right or they only see the good times, they don’t see all behind the scene stuff that spouses and family do and I think that is the hard part.

Mr. Feyko expresses the need and understanding of family members.

Michael Feyko

Mr. Michael Feyko was born July 12, 1970 in Windsor, Ontario. Immediately out of high school, Mr. Feyko joined the military and held rank of private with the Princess Patricia Canadian Light Infantry. He attended battle school in Wainwright, Alberta. First deploying to Norway, Mr. Feyko then continued on with tours to Cyprus and to Somalia. Realizing his true passion was to be a jumper and following his desire to gain a career with Search & Rescue, Mr. Feyko found himself back in Canada with the SkyHawks attending many air shows across the country. While in Edmonton, Mr. Feyko was involved in a parachute accident where he was left with a lifetime injury. With major injury to his body, Mr. Feyko rehabilitated himself back into civilian life and in 2000 a decision was made for medical discharge. With great determination and desire to continue life as it was prior to his injury, Mr. Feyko was inspired by the Soldier On program and assisted as coach of the Team Canada Golf Team leading them to five medals at the Invictus Games held in Toronto, Ontario September 2017. Now married and with a family, Mr. Feyko enjoys a career as a PGA golf pro and continues to train golfers who are part of Soldier On in preparing for the next Invictus Games to be held in Sydney, Australia.