Thanks, merci, gracias,
danke, grazie, köszönöm, spasibo, tack, takk, terima kasih, arigato! My sincere gratitude goes out to all my
friends around the world for your Comments,
Follows, Shares, Likes and Views on my first six monthly installments of Mike’s Quadrant. Your genuine interest and collective positive
feedback is the fuel I was hoping for and the incentive needed to continue to
share my life’s story past, present and future.
For the past 53 years I've been bold enough to try and discover new
roads regardless of wherever they may lead, whatever obstacles I may encounter
and what I’ll learn at the end of each and every journey, short or long.
Here I'm in "Full Rant" mode last February!
Upon
entering the Blogger-sphere last
January I inherently sensed it would not be easy.It has been incredibly taxing and even at
times overwhelming on my physical, intellectual, emotional and creative juices
in order to generate my monthly content and meet the deliverables.My hat goes off to those many “true” writers
around the world who are tasked with monthly, weekly and often daily deadlines
to get their messages out to the world by traditional and new social media
platforms.Personally, I've always been
a writer at heart but have chosen to be very discriminating and selective about
what, when, where and to whom I share my inner thoughts.
Hence,
Mike’s Quadrant was somewhat of a
social experiment to explore this new digital platform while monitoring the
overall response and feedback. While the
numbers of supporters are significant I think that only a quantitative review
of my blog only tells a part of what you (my friends and readers) reflect back
to me. Looking at all the feedback
through a qualitative lens I believe is much more telling as I loved to hear back
from those of you who truly took the time to read and view the various
installments in their entirety as opposed to those who took a quick glance and didn't offer any feedback at all. I
think this is thereby the BIG unknown about new media because we are all
bombarded with information through so many competing platforms vying for our
attention that is virtually impossible to follow everything and “weed out” the
good from the ordinary and then take valuable time to share your thoughts with
me.
For
those of you who have been loyal and dedicated readers of Mike’s Quadrant you’ll recall that I've posted 6 installments respectively named: Let the Games Commence, The Olympian Within, The Right Stuff, ‘Round
the World Challenge … Revisited, CTV Ottawa - Amazing People and now Friends
… One and All.For the record, here is how the raw numbers stack up and I’ll leave it
up to you my friends to make of them what you will. As of June 23rd we
have received 15,460Views; 281Likes, 105Comments, 63Shares and 21 Followers. Perhaps, more
important and revealing are the highly qualitative, supportive and complimentary
responses which have been threaded throughout the following video segment accompanying
my written blog. In my opinion, many of these
thought-provoking comments are the testimony to what the stories really meant
to some of my readers and how some of my subject matters truly hit home and
resonated.
Here I'm flying in an open cockpit 1941 Stamp .... vintage WWII
Please note that we will be taking a hiatus in July and will not
be posting an installment that month. However, stay tuned for my next Quadrant
which will resume and be posted at the end of August. Keep us on your radar as we will be shifting
gears and poised to take on some highly interesting, innovative and controversial
subject matters over the coming summer and fall seasons which will be sure to
make you laugh and cry and ponder! If
you liked what you've read and watched, please follow me on Google in
addition to sending me your comments, “likes” and sharing this story with your
network of friends. I hope to see you on
the sunny side of the mountain!
Yesterday evening and earlier today I had the distinct honour of being profiled on CTV Ottawa’s Amazing
People series. It was a whirlwind week of shooting an outdoor interview both around our home in Manotick (south of Ottawa) and on the banks of the Rideau River in close proximity. Suggesting a location which is usually a deserted and quiet "off the beaten path" trail leading to the water's edge didn't exactly pan out. We were all continuously swarmed by an infestation of insects, an unusual amount of pleasure boat traffic and a mix of sun and cloud which drove Mark the camerman rather mad due to the infrequent background noise, the constantly changing lighting condition while swatting away bugs. My dear friend and new host of the TV series Ms. Leanne Cusack kept joking that for a man with many good ideas, my choice of shoot locations was not one of the better ones! In any event we all persevered and although almost bitten alive managed to get most of our points across.
The main interview was broadcast yesterday evening at 6:30 pm on our local news channel and I've received plenty of positive feedback from family, friends and viewers. I was quite impressed that Leanne and her editor were able to tell my life's story in a powerful and succinct 4 minute segment. Earlier this afternoon we then followed up with another live interview at the CTV studio in the heart of Ottawa's busy Byward Market whereby we had the opportunity to expand upon the original broadcast over a 15 minute time slot. My gratitude goes out to my partner Mary Anne McPhee and good friend Larry McClosky for taking time out of their day to join me in the studio and talk about their own perspectives on our relationship, disability issues and what the future has in store.
For your information the Amazing People series has been running since 2012 and every February there is a large gala evening held at the
Ottawa Convention Centre celebrating all of the individuals profiled throughout
the year with one person being voted as the most amazing person of all. To view the broadcast, please click on the following link.
Stay tuned for my next Quadrant which will be posted at the end of June. If you liked what you’ve read and watched,
please send me your comments and “likes” while sharing this story with your
network of friends. I hope to see you on
the sunny side of the mountain!
More than 3 years in the planning, on March 20th,
2001 the ‘Round the World Challenge set off from Parliament Hill, Ottawa Canada
in an attempt for me to become the first quadriplegic to circumnavigate the
world in my modified truck. Importantly,
the project was the platform to raise awareness about the many urgent issues
facing people with disabilities while generating funds for spinal cord injury
rehabilitation and research.
Through a hugely successful international multimedia campaign
we managed to reach more than 100 million people and raise over $1M for our
cause. While many articles covered the
project from start to finish, one that stood out from the rest and really
encapsulated the entire “feel” of the
challenge was a feature length piece written by Hans Posthuma for Canadian Disability magazine in their
Fall/Winter edition of 2001. I am
grateful that Hans has agreed to let me share this story in its entirety and as
published with all of you.
I’m pleased to inform you that we have just completed a 1
hour reedited version of our documentary film which chronicled the entire project. My gratitude goes out to Derek Prosser, our
AV Adviser and Editor for all his hard work in telling our story in a much
tighter time frame while still managing to capture the various milestones,
relentless challenges and overall themes of the project. If you’d like to learn more about this unique
project please click on the following link www.roundtheworldchallenge.com
Stay tuned for my next Quadrant which will be posted at the end of May. If you liked what you’ve read and watched,
please send me your comments and “likes” while sharing this story with your
network of friends. I hope to see you on
the sunny side of the mountain!
Growing up in the 60’s and 70’s, I‘ve
always retained a strong sense of social values including being a passionate proponent
for full equality across the board regardless of gender, beliefs or
disability. In fact, I fondly recall
working with the “Disabled Ski Club of Great Britain” training some blind
athletes on the dry ski slopes in England in the early 80’s even before my own
spinal cord injury. In all my worldly
travels and varied experiences I’ve always tried to empathize with others and strived
to see how I would live and react if our circumstances were reversed. Perhaps I was naïve, but prior to my accident
I had no idea to what degree people with disabilities were marginalized,
ostracized and discriminated against be it consciously or subconsciously. Indifference and ignorance is often worse than
outright and overt discrimination. As
the old saying goes, “walk a day in my shoes” and then you “just might” see
part of my life’s challenges. I would go
one step further and add that we in the disabled community call all those in
the able-bodied community TAB’s which is an acronym for “Temporarily Able
Bodied”! Of course nobody chooses to
lose any amount of mobility or independence yet as I’ve learned first-hand at
the tender age of 24 that accidents can happen to anyone, at anytime and
anywhere … most often in a heartbeat.
First time - Adaptive Waterskiing - Heron Park, England '95
I fundamentally think that the riddle
of spinal cord injury research will eventually pay dividends, ideally finding a
cure to regenerate paralyzed limbs either partially or completely throughout
the body. Until that time, we (people
with disabilities) still have to live in the “here and now”. This means, not predicating all our resources
on a future cure but rather, maximizing our collective quality of life through
education, acceptance
and applicable research that helps us become more
independent and participate fully in all aspects of society. Depending on your comfort zone, this could
range from attending your first concert and pursuing adventure sports to
playing a musical instrument or even ultimately going into space with Sir Richard
Branson’s “Virgin Galactic” set to launch their inaugural commercial flights
later this year!
As it would require writing a book to address
all of my 30+ years of disability activism and advocacy work, I thought it
would be more impactful to elaborate on one major personal incident which has had
far reaching consequences but eventually resulting in changes which have benefited
all of society. It seems that my
greatest lessons in life have usually come as a direct result from my own
personal setbacks and adversity which at the time seemed so overwhelming that I
thought I’d never overcome those obstacles and view the world with the same
level of trust and unbridled optimism.
Ottawa Carleton - Injury Prevention Week - Organizing Committee - City Hall '95
Some of those major roadblocks came
in the early fall of 1996 when I hired a young lady (let’s call her LK) to attend
to some of my personal care. At the time
I was the Educational Coordinator for The Rehabilitation Centre’s – Disability
Awareness and Prevention Program.
Working flat out in a full time job, frequently after dinner I would get
transferred to bed early by LK completely unaware that something sinister was
taking place right under my nose.
Flash
forward a couple of weeks when I was performing some routine banking at my local
Canada Trust branch and then reviewed my pass book (a booklet commonly used
before internet banking). Suddenly, to my horror, I discovered eleven
unauthorized withdrawals on five separate days from my personal bank account.
After a thorough review, I calculated that I had been defrauded a total of
$5,207.00. I then went directly to the Ottawa-Carleton Police Station to file a
report. I was advised by a detective to see a lawyer before the police became
involved, because I would need an affidavit testifying that all the
transactions were unauthorized and not made by me. Apparently, in this type of
fraud, the person usually reporting the crime is the first prime suspect. After getting all of my paperwork in order I
returned to the police station to file a formal report but was advised by the
detective, due to the back log of cases, no investigation would take place for many
months.
With that knowledge, I took matters
into my own hands. Instantly, I knew who to suspect was behind these crimes.
The only person who had access to my PIN number and regularly helped me with my
banking and my care was my new personal attendant, LK. Over the next few days I did a little more
investigative work and all the evidence pointed to LK. I felt so very violated
by this person since she was always in my home, I trusted her with my most
intimate details and even treated her like a friend. I couldn't comprehend how
someone whom I employed, at a good hourly wage, could breech my trust and live
with themselves in the bargain. When I eventually met up with LK I relayed all
of the terrible events of the previous week but the entire time she never said
a word and surprisingly, never offered any empathy or concern for my loss! Then
I asked outright if LK had ever taken my ATM card without my knowledge or
whether she knew anything about these crimes or had any involvement whatsoever?
She denied everything.
A few months later I received a call
from a Police Detective to inform me that under duress, LK finally admitted to
stealing my ATM card from my home (wallet) and was a direct accomplice by giving
her boyfriend’s my bank card and PIN number on five separate occasions. In order
to avoid prosecution, LK plea bargained with the police. In return for
identifying her boyfriends in connection with the crimes, she was granted
immunity and would not be implicated in the frauds. What makes this fraud even
more distressing is the fact that, due to my disability and reliance on others,
my vulnerable situation was exploited and my trust seriously violated. The
repercussions of these crimes were felt financially and psychologically for
many years afterwards. Worse, even after
all these years I have been unable to place 100% trust in my personal care attendants
and this has negatively impacted on my working relationship with the people I
depend on for my day to day routines and literal survival!
In the
hope that true justice would prevail and that these young individuals would
realize how much their crimes have hurt me and set back my life, I wanted to
attain some assurance that the three would be held judicially and morally
accountable for their actions. I
subsequently launched, pursued and was eventually successful in a civil action
against the perpetrators which saw them (2 boyfriends) paying me back all of
the funds that I had been defrauded. In
order to address this matter systemically across North America while hoping to prevent
others from ever having to endure what I went through, I launched a formal complaint
with the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) against all 6 federally
chartered banks. In essence, these nationally
regulated institutions failed all of their customers with physical disabilities
by not accommodating our “special needs” in the provision of wheelchair
accessible ABM’s and subsequently leaving us with little choice other than having
to divulge our PIN numbers to a third party.
After
being the longest CHRC complainant case (over 9 years from start to finish) in
battling the banks, their Toronto based lawyers and their lobbying arm, the
Canadian Bankers Association, in 2005 I was finally victorious in having a wide
range of policies, practices and disability accommodation issues agreed to by
all the 6 banks. At a reported cost of
more than $1 Billion the banks were forced to have at least one lower counter
ABM at every location across Canada in addition to being signatories to the
following ongoing initiatives.
1.Reaffirm their Commitment to implementation of the
Canadian Standards Association’s (CSA) “Barrier-Free Design for Automated
Banking Machines.
2.Develop an implementation plan for compliance with
the ABM standard and report on an annual basis their progress to the CHRC.
3.Continue to develop barrier-free access standards
for Point of Sales (POS) devices by encouraging participation by retail, manufacturing
and the Acquirer industries.
4.Provide print information available to the public in
alternate formats.
5.When constructing new premises and significant
renovations at bank branches, accommodate the needs of people with disabilities
to the point of undue hardship.
6.Consider the needs of people with disabilities in
the development of web-based services and products.
7.Maintain an internal dispute resolution process for
addressing customer complaints specifically available to people with
disabilities who wish to raise any issue concerning access to financial
services.
8.Report on the accessibility of their services to
people with disabilities in their respective annual Public Accountability
Statements.
As I am
legally bound not to disclose any further details about my Human Rights case, I
am pleased that the many years of fighting for my personal rights, systemically
lobbying the banking industry and “going the distance” in pursuing a satisfactory
resolution has finally paid off for all Canadians with disabilities.
World Toboggan Speed Record Attempt - Les Arcs, France '87
The video
clip below speaks mainly to my disability human rights advocacy work, awareness
and fundraising through the World Toboggan Speed Record attempt and the ‘Round
the World Challenge charitable organization.
I have had the distinct honour of working with and representing some of the
most notable organizations in the world including the United Nations, World
Bank, Christopher Reeve Paralysis Organization, Canadian Paraplegic Association,
The Back-Up Trust, General Motors Corporation, Pfizer Inc. and the Government
of Canada.
With more
than a billion people with disabilities around the planet and growing, I will
continue to act in a leadership role as a true activist, advocate and change
maker. Stay tuned for my next Quadrant
which will be posted at the end of April.
If you liked what you’ve read and watched, please send me your comments
and “likes” while sharing this story with your network of friends.
Hope to see you on the sunny side of the mountain!
Stretched Out
'83 Tignes, France
Photo: Mark Junak
Bumps at Sundown
'83 Merribel, France
Photo: Mark Junak
THEOLYMPIANWITHIN
Canadian Cowboy Mike
Ski Movie "Aladin's Wunderski"
'81 Sahara Desert, Morocco Photo: Fuzzy Garhammer
Friends,
thank you for all of your comments, likes and shares on my last blog. For all our left brain audience who favor
analytics, I’m pleased to announce that my inaugural posting has received more
than “four figures” number of visitors so I’m stoked and encouraged to keep
writing and sharing some of my life’s story with as much clarity and candor
that my 52 year old mind can recall and form into comprehensible
sentences.
Unless
you have been living on the moon or the Space Station, you well know that our
global weather patterns are dramatically changing in real time. In writing to you
from Ottawa, Canada, we have taken a few direct blows from old mother nature due
to the unpredictable jet stream only to be flattened by old man winter with
a rather unusual flow from the polar vortex.
Yet somehow, us hardy Canadians (Scots) manage to survive and some even
thrive throughout this virtually unprecedented season affecting all of North
America, albeit, we’re all suffering from a bit of cabin fever!
Now
that our Olympic hangover has had a little time to wear off after 16 days of intense
competition including the toll on our emotions; sometimes feeling overwhelmed,
riding the highs and accomplishments, proud and elated and at other times,
feeling lowly and sad only to be replicated over and over again. I think that enough time has elapsed (at
least for me) for all of us to reflect on a marvelous Sochi Winter Olympic
Games. Once somebody said that, “The World is a Stage and We Each Must Play
Our Part”. That’s sort of how I see
the Olympic Games with the caveat that it takes exceptional natural born athleticism,
an indefatigable work ethic, relentless dedication and a burning desire to
accomplish monumental goals. In
addition, those rare and gifted individuals amongst us who do make it all the
way to the Games, must be willing to sacrifice a large chunk of their life and pay
the price of the thrill of victory and
the agony of defeat on a worldwide stage witnessed by more than a billion
avid fans, many of whom embody the spirit of The Olympian Within.
For
me The Olympian Within is, foregoing
all of the incredible Olympic action on television and the internet on the
first full day of competition, Saturday, February 8thin favour of meeting up with my good
friend and former team-mate, Steve Hambling to check out his Fortune Freestyle Development
Team at the
Steve H., Mike N. & Mike A.
'76 Mt. Cascades, Quebec
Photo: The Ottawa Citizen
“Glebe Rail Jam”. After a
hearty lunch from the nearby chip truck, I witnessed young Will, age 13,
perform one of his first ever “450 - Pretzel” manoeuvres off the end of a 20
foot iron clad rail and land clean to the rapturous applause from an
appreciative crowd of approximately 90 competitors, judges, coaches, parents
and curious onlookers. In that moment I
had flashbacks of my own career which started with my 1st ever 360
degree spin at Vorlage, Quebec at the tender age of 11 with my eyes ablaze
to the possibilities of what other
tricks I could accomplish in the coming years.
As happy as I was for the Dufor-Lapointe sisters Justine and Chloe who
had just respectively won Canada’s gold and silver medals in freestyle mogul skiing
the same day, I kept thinking back to Will and how proud he was to “Stick It” …
his new trick, in competition, in front of his peers and parents. Oh, what a
day it was for Will and for Canada!
In
essence, The Olympian Within is
really all of us who have a small or big dream, who work tooth and nail to achieve greatness. While some make it all the way to the Olympic
podium others are satisfied by winning a local rail jam competition for a medal
and a $25 gift certificate. Yet, some
among us are struggling to just get by, hoping that over the next 4 years
they can build a business, land a good job, get out of debt, lose that winter
weight or just seek contentment and solace.
The Olympian Within is the
strength of the human spirit to endure and rise in the face of adversity
knowing that tomorrow and indeed over the next 4 years many goals will be set
and achieved while being abound with optimism that life will get better. While this is my take on the inner Olympian, we
are privileged to hear from a few of my Olympian friends who were gracious
enough to put their thoughts and beliefs on this topic into writing.
Sonny Schonbachler: 1st
Place - Gold Medal – Lillehammer Winter Olympics ’94 - Swiss World Cup Team
Aerials ’84-’94. “It means one more dream - dreaming with the
athletes of today, again.” Konrad Bartelski: 3-Time Winter
Olympian - British Ski-Racing World Cup Team – Downhill ‘74-’82. “It is where sport rises above politics and the best athletes from all the
different sports compete at the highest level.”
Melanie Palenik-Simboli: 1st Place - Gold Medal - Calgary
Winter Olympics ’88 – World Champion -Combined ‘89 - 7 World Cup Wins – USA
World Cup Team – Combined - ’85-‘91. “It is forever an earned life experience that I
try my best to share with others in order to inspire them to find the best in
themselves!”
Graham Wilkie: Olympian -
Albertville Winter Olympics ’92 - World Record Holder - Speed Skiing ’87 –
British Speed Skiing Team ’83-’88. “It is choosing a goal and the path towards
that goal, the struggles, pain, emotions and the sacrifices that act as a
cauldron to form the person that comes out on the other side. I believe that almost anyone could make it to
the Olympics and in essence, it is “The Olympian Within” that will get them
there.”
Flash back to 1985.
There I was at age 24, in the prime of my life, working towards my own
lofty goals of trying to become the World Champion in ’86 and contending for an
Olympic medal at the Calgary Winter Games in ’88 held in my adopted home
country of Canada. Of course, as many of
you already know, my dreams of World Champs and the Olympics were never
realized as on May 18th, 1985, I attempted a Full In - Full Out, double
twisting-double back flip on my trampoline only to land on my neck and suffer a
severe spinal cord injury leaving me a high level quadriplegic for the past 29
years. While it might seem like a long
time ago for some of you, it feels like only yesterday to me.
Of course life does go on,
regardless of circumstances and I’ll be damned if I was going to let a
disability end my life. Rather, my
injury and long rehabilitation was going to be a major Game Changer, but
Why swim with the sharks when you can play with the whales.
'06 Mike & Hubert Marineland, Niagara Falls, Ontario
Photo: Mary Anne McPhee
also an opportunity to prove to others and
ultimately to prove that I could pick myself up (not literally) and rebuild my
life by refocussing, setting new/different goals and still maintaining a high quality
of life that would satisfy my zest for living life to the fullest.
If you’ve made it this far,
please stick around and watch the following 27 minute video compilation of Same
Game – Different Rules and Taking on
the World which are two British award winning documentaries that chronicled
my life in those fragile and redefining years directly following my accident. While we have distributed both documentaries
to more than 40 countries around the world, we have also donated all of the
profits to a charity that is very close to my heart called The Back Up Trust www.backuptrust.org.uk.
Friends,
thanks for giving me such a strong boost of confidence and support as I
continue down the path of sharing my stories on new media. Be sure to look out for the next installment
of Mike’s Quadrant around the end of March. If you like what you’ve read and watched,
please share this with your network of friends, offer your comments and “like” us
on FB. Hope to see you on the sunny side of the mountain!
As corny as it may sound, it seems a fitting opening sentence
given that the Sochi Winter Olympics Games are just a week away and that life
is the ultimate “Game” that we're all playing for keeps. Of course not everyone gets the opportunity
to become an Olympian.I came close
though, as the Calgary Winter Olympics were squarely placed on my personal radar
especially considering that the aerials event (my forte) were to become for the
first time ever a demonstration sport in 1988.Flash back to 1985, with three World Cups victories and more than 40
titles under my belt I was truly a World Contender and an “Olympic Hopeful”.
1976 "Big Back Tuck"
Flip - Mt. Cascades
Quebec, Canada
Welcome
to “Mike’s QuadRant” and my first official blog written at the tender age of 52
years, 10 months and 30 days old.When
you start to break down time into years, then months and finally into days you
begin to grasp the magnitude of time and the finite role each of us plays in
this vast, busy and complicated world before we run out of time and the torch
is passed on.I have always had a love
for writing and for archiving certain aspects of my life, people, events and
places that I felt were important enough to cherish, record and share with
others.From age 15 I kept a thorough
scrapbook of all my sporting achievements including victories, losses and even
some of the day-today minutia that seemed to take its rightful place in the continuum
of my life’s story.It seems somewhat
fitting to want to share my life’s highs and lows at this middle age when a
considerable amount of time is now “under the bridge” and a brand new
considerable amount of time still awaits in my future.
1979 "Realistic Cup" Canadian
National Championships
Sunshine, Banff, Alberta
To
say I’ve received my fair share of the proverbial “15 minutes of fame” would be
a huge understatement.Since winning my
1st Junior Canadian Freestyle Skiing National Championship in 1976 (1st
of 4 Shell Cups) and joining the ranks of the World Cup circuit to breaking my
neck at age 24 and driving unassisted around the world in 2001, it seems like I
was always being interviewed, quoted or featured in numerous local, national
and international media.In fact my
life’s story has been the subject of 6 international documentary films and
programs, numerous articles and news clippings and even made its way into a
variety of books chronicling some of my accomplishments.But, that is precisely why I feel compelled
to write at this point in my life to tell my story from my first person’s
perspective.
Throughout
the next 12 months I will share personal stories, anecdotes, news clippings, magazine
articles, photos, audio programs and video postings that run the gamut of
emotions from setting monumental goals, experiencing amazing natural highs and achieving
the loftiest of dreams to enduring unfathomable loss, subjected to abuse, discrimination,
alienation, criticism and mischaracterizations while living a highly dependent
and constant daily routine with chronic debilitating pain.A tough existence … definitely; a roller
coaster ride to be sure; a life well lived, absolutely. When I look in the
mirror I see a man who has lived life to the fullest; a flawed character; a
perpetual fighter and an eternal optimist … check, check, check and check again.
1971 "Nepean Knights"
Ontario Junior Lacrosse
Champions
In
order to tell my whole story I will be going right back to my early upbringing
as the middle child in a young aspiring immigrant family settling into Canada
at age 4.I will take you on a stroll
through the formative year’s right through to my first taste of sporting
victory becoming the Ontario Junior Lacrosse Champions at age 10.I will impart some of the character
development which eventually led me into choosing to excel in an individual
sport and why I opted to pursue the emerging sport of freestyle skiing as a
combined athlete competing in all three disciplines of Ballet, Moguls and Aerials.As one of the winningness Canadian amateur skiers of all time I had the good fortune to be smack on the
cusp of an evolving sport which saw us young pioneers compete as amateurs
qualifying to join the elite ranks of the professionals and then return again
to amateurs in order to gain International Olympic Committee status.
I'll take you back to the build-up of deciding to compete for Great Britain, the
obstacles and opportunities of competing for a non-alpine nation and eventually
becoming Britain’s most successful skier of all time.I’ll share with you the methodical and
strategic planning, the indomitable work ethic, fierce determination and constant
desire needed to win my first of three world cups, two European Championships,
multiple Europa Cups and 5 British Championship titles.We’ll continue the ride through the ups and downs
of impending stardom through roles in a variety of feature films, numerous TV
commercials and appearances, photo shoots, ski shows and endorsements in the
early years of sport and sponsorship.
You’ll
be witness to how my life changed forever when in 1985 at the age of 24 and
ranked third in the world I had an accident on the trampoline breaking my neck
at the 4/5 cervical vertebrates and instantly becoming a high level
quadriplegic losing all my cherished physicality, freedom and
independence.You will literally go on an
emotional roller coaster with me over the fight to survive and the need to set
new goals and change my entire view of a reality and future that I never
planned for.You’ll understand why I
firmly believe that the true hidden ability to thrive is not on the outside nor
tangible but it is on the inside, it is intangible … it is mind, heart and soul
that we must all rely on in order to find true peace of mind, to set
larger-than-life goals and find ultimate and lasting satisfaction and
happiness.
I
invite you to join me in this exciting voyage to find out what makes me tick …
after all I’m just as excited about the outcome for my own life as you are for
yours.My last chapters are yet to be
written because they are unfolding in the moment.We all have only one life to live regardless
of circumstances. If you’ve ever felt doubt, had monumental setbacks and
overwhelming obstacles to overcome yet still held onto the belief that it’s
going to get better and that we’re all destined for greatness … then we are already
kindred spirits.
