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Foundation connects disabled youth to career mentors
Bay Area oncologist Dr. Hoa Le was paralyzed in a surfing accident on his honeymoon while in the middle of his medical residency. Le and his wife, Dr. Jennifer Yang, co-founded Reach Career Mentoring, a nonprofit connecting young people with disabilities to career mentors across all fields.
OAKLAND, Calif. - A Bay Area oncologist who was paralyzed in a surfing accident on his honeymoon has spent nearly two decades proving that a life-altering injury doesn't have to derail a dream.
Now he and his wife are making sure others don't have to figure that out alone.
Life-changing accident
The backstory:
Dr. Hoa Le, who has practiced oncology at Kaiser Permanente for 17 years, was in the middle of his medical residency when the accident happened.
The surfing mishap left him with T12 paraplegia, eliminating all motor function and sensation from the waist down.
He was out of commission for roughly 15 months.
"Not a day went by that I wasn't thinking about medicine," Le said. "For me, that's the way I'm going to help."
When the frustration of recovery finally boiled over, he said, it became a turning point.
"After a while it's okay to be tired of being tired. You want your life back. And that's what I did," Le said.
His wife, Dr. Jennifer Yang, said the shift in his attitude signaled to her that his mindset had changed.
"I knew there was a change in the tide when he just was like, 'I'm tired of this, I want to get back to work,'" she said. "We're a team and we just do this together."
Getting back to the grind
Le returned to complete his training and eventually found his footing in oncology.
Giving back:
He has also co-founded the Kaiser Santa Clara Disability Alliance with a cardiovascular surgeon colleague.
But one thing was missing during his recovery: someone who had been through it before.
"There's really no mentorship for that. There's nowhere to turn," he said.
That gap became the seed of a larger mission.
Le and Yang co-founded Reach Career Mentoring, a nonprofit connecting young people with disabilities to career mentors across all professional fields — not just medicine.
"The poverty rate and the unemployment rate is double in the community with disabilities compared to non-disabled," Le said. "We need to change that."
Super source of inspiration:
Le said he draws inspiration from an unlikely source: the X-Men.
"Charles Xavier has an academy for the gifted, and I've always dreamt of having something like that for our community with disabilities," Le said.
More information is available at reachcareermentoring.org.
The organization is also active on LinkedIn and Instagram.
The Source: Interview with Dr. Hoa Le and Dr. Jennifer Yang