Spencer Beach offers hope to soldiers injured in CFB Wainwright fire

Spencer Beach, a burn survivor and motivational speaker, is offering to share his experience with soldiers injured in the fire at CFB Wainwright, once the time is right. Beach was injured more than 20 years ago in a workplace fire at a house under construction in Edmonton, where he suffered third- and fourth-degree burns to 90 per cent of his body and was told he had a five per cent chance to survive.

"I've dealt with pain that you'd never want to imagine. I know what's it like to feel hopelessness and to have your entire identity removed from you!" Beach said. He said he would "share the darkness and the light" he went through to help the injured find hope.

Military officials put the number of surviving soldiers recovering in Edmonton hospitals at 27. Give Life Alberta said burn injuries require donated skin from deceased people and called for urgent donations after the fire. Acute Care Alberta said Alberta tissue banks in Edmonton and Calgary used available supplies, and that hospitals have since secured additional skin from Manitoba.

Albertans can register as organ and tissue donors through Give Life Alberta.