My name is Margaux and I’m a 36-year-old outdoor addict. I was born and raised in Paris and moved to Vancouver a few years ago. Like a lot of people who moved here, I fell in love with the mountains, and hiking/trail running quickly became my favourite hobbies. I adopted my dog Zion a couple years ago and he’s become my favourite hiking partner. I also started running ultras in 2024 and after running a few 50kms and a 100km race, my next goal was to do 100 miles.

On August 24th, 2025, after summiting Tricouni peak in the Squamish area, myself, Zion and my friend Max were downclimbing a steep wall. Zion lost his footing on a ledge and started falling, and my first instinct was to just grab him by his harness, completely forgetting he is a 85-pound beast. That’s when Zion and I both tumbled down a 60ft cliff.

Luckily enough, Zion was completely unharmed, and I hadn’t lost consciousness. I remember looking at my right leg and knew something was very wrong with it. After waiting a couple hours for Search and Rescue, I was admitted to Lion’s Gate hospital where I went through multiple CT scans. My head was fine but the verdict for my leg, not so good. Tibial plateau fracture type VI. I had never heard of it before and found out it only represents 2% of all fractures. Because of the swelling, they couldn’t operate just yet so I spent the next 10 days with an external fixator, laying in bed. The surgeon told me it is one of the worst injuries you can do to your leg and the recovery can be extremely long (up to 18 months). He told me I couldn’t expect to do much physical activities for 6 months, and probably a year before I could run again. The surgery went well and I was now the proud “owner” of 2 plates and 10 screws in my leg. Now this is where things get rough, I wasn’t allowed to put any weight on my leg for the next 12 weeks and I had lost all range of motion in my knee. For someone as active as me it felt like a death sentence. All I could do was hop on one leg with a walker. I was told I could start physiotherapy straight away and my mission was to find a physiotherapist experienced with knee injuries and with a running background.

I will always remember my first appointment with Jen at Treloar Physiotherapy. I was struggling with my walker and the first words she said to me were “you’re doing so good”, and for some reason it was the most reassuring thing I had heard since my accident 3 weeks before. After a few tears and expressing my fears to her she explained how we were going to work together to build my strength back. The first 7 weeks, we mostly worked on my range of motion and then started incorporating some light strength training. I was seeing Jen every week and we were making really good progress. At 11 weeks I got some of the best news. I could finally walk without assistance and hike again! What I love about Jen is how much she cares. I could tell she was as excited as I was for me to walk again. After another 12 weeks and an impressive recovery so far, I was told I could run again! Only 6 months post-surgery.

I will never forget my first run back when Jen put me on the treadmill and I just started running, like I had never stopped. I am 9 months post surgery now and I would say 90% back to what I was before the injury. And I can say with certainty that I wouldn’t be this far in my recovery if it wasn’t for Jen. She saw me at my most vulnerable state, she believed in me and she gave me the mental strength I needed to push myself and get better. Recovery can be extremely lonely and she made it so much easier to handle. She’s definitely one of the silver linings that came out of my terrible accident and I would like to believe that we have become friends after all these months working together, so thank you so much Jen!

By Margaux Cohen
Client
Treloar Physiotherapy Clinic

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