Our community is full of heroes both big and small. Some wear uniforms and run into harm’s way while others go about their day quietly.
Bailey “Chance” Bishop a 14-year-old Vicksburg native was hospitalized for more than a month after a gruesome car crash in October 2013 that killed his brother Brice and injured six others.
Bishop spent the next three months confined to a hospital bed and a scooter with a badly injured leg that showed no signs of getting better. After three months, doctors said they would have to amputate his right leg.
One month after losing his leg, Chance Bishop tried on his first prosthesis around the same he competed in the Run Through History race. It was an inspiring scene to many runners to see Chance make his way to the finish line.
The accident has completely altered the family’s day-to-day life. Instead of dwelling on the future, Jillean Bishop and her son began to cherish the present.
It’s also how she got Chance to return to his old love — basketball.
The YMCA invited Bishop to come back to play the last season he missed due to his injury.
He’s serving as an inspiration to those around Vicksburg with similar injuries.
“When he first got (the prosthesis) I remember him telling me he wasn’t going to wear shorts. He said, I’m not wearing shorts, but it was hot and it was summer so he started wearing shorts,” Jillean said.
“We went to Taco Bell a couple of weeks ago and one of the girls came up to us and asked if we were the Bishops and we said yes. She said, ‘Well, I have a 6-year-old nephew that broke his leg playing baseball so badly that they had to amputate it, and he would never wear shorts.’ He’d seen Chance around town wear shorts, and now he wears shorts.”
It was in that moment, when the world seemed to nudge Chance toward the idea that he can inspire just by living, that he truly realized his purpose.
Chance’s story is inspiring, but the way he lives his life is inspiring to our community.