Help Keith Liggett regain independence after a debilitating stroke by supporting a community fundraiser for a custom wheelchair and ongoing physiotherapy.

Keith Liggett has been part of Fernie’s writing, arts, and mountain community for more than 20 years. A familiar face in town and on the hill since the early 2000s, Keith is known as a skier, poet, writer, storyteller, arts supporter, traveller, and generous mentor to other writers.

For many years, Keith also contributed to Fernie.com through his well-read blog, Off Camber in Fernie, where he brought a thoughtful, observant, and often unconventional perspective to life in the community.

As Keith described it, “off camber” refers to turns where the ground slopes away from the line you expect, making traction harder to hold as speed increases. In skiing, an off-camber pitch is one where the fall line does not follow the cut of the trail.

That became a fitting metaphor for his writing.

“Keith Liggett has a writing career with one foot in the literary and the other seeking a different angle within traditional journalism,” he wrote in introducing the blog. “In this blog, I’ll follow the goings and comings in Fernie—in town and on the hill—but the run will not be in the normal fall line. And I’ll duck into the trees as often as not.”

Now, Keith is facing a far more difficult off-camber turn.

In August, Keith suffered a severe stroke that changed his life completely. After four months in hospital, he now lives at Rocky Mountain Village in Fernie, where he is adjusting to a profoundly altered daily reality.

The stroke left the left side of his body paralyzed. His speech and vision have been affected, and the independence he once relied on has been taken away. Keith is also living with constant pain in his immobile limbs.

A group of Keith’s close friends and family is now raising funds to help restore some measure of freedom, comfort, and dignity to his daily life.

The immediate goal is to purchase a custom-fitted one-arm-drive wheelchair and support one year of regular physiotherapy.

The specialized wheelchair would allow Keith to propel, stop, and steer using his capable arm. It would give him back a vital piece of independence: the ability to move through his day with more freedom, comfort, and control.

The custom wheelchair is expected to cost $13,000 and includes a custom-fitted back support, tilt-chair option for comfort during extended sitting, one-arm drive system, side cushioning, protective footbox, and an air-cushioned adjustable seat cushion.

Keith also requires ongoing physiotherapy to help maintain movement and motor function in the arm and leg he can still use. Regular therapy will support strength, reduce muscle spasticity, help manage pain, and improve his ability to participate in daily life.

One year of physiotherapy is estimated at $11,960, based on two sessions per week at $230 per week for 52 weeks.

Together, these supports will help Keith regain some of the independence, dignity, mobility, and quality of life that the stroke has taken from him.

Keith has given Fernie more than two decades of words, encouragement, perspective, and community presence. He helped tell Fernie’s stories, supported the arts, encouraged other writers, and brought his own off-camber view to the place he loved.

Now his friends, acquaintances, readers, and the wider Fernie community are being asked to rally around him.

Any contribution, large or small, will help Keith move forward with greater comfort, mobility, and hope.

Donate here to support Keith Liggett’s wheelchair and physiotherapy fundraiser.