FOR MOST SKATEBOARDERS, that first board is unforgettable. For 23-year-old Conner Millan, it has helped shape his entire life. Millan received his—a Walmart Spiderman board—as a gift from his mother when he was 8 years old. He remembers sitting on it and riding around when another boy his age pushed his way past. “He asked me why I wasn’t standing on it, and from that day on I was determined to learn how to skate standing up,” Millan tells GOOD. Millan was born with spina bifida, a rare birth defect in which an infant’s spine fails to develop properly in the womb. According to Mayo Clinic, there are fewer than 200,000 U.S. cases of spina bifida yearly. This chronic developmental disability can’t be cured and requires an immediate medical diagnosis. Some cases may require surgery and others require treatment to help with management over time.

Read more at sports.good.is