After sustaining a spinal cord injury and becoming a quadriplegic in 2009, it became evidently clear there were not enough options for an individual wanting to improve their quality of life post injury. Within the first twelve months of my SCI journey, I met so many SCI survivors who were struggling with their new reality and their families were desperately trying to find answers and amongst all this, hope and this included my own.

 

I set out to find the best possible recovery options available, which included travelling across the world and collectively began to combine exercise therapy with holistic practises that were improving my own mobility and mindset.Upon an outpatient visit with my spinal consultant who had once told me to accept my new life in a chair, with me now walking into the hospital with the aid of a frame, I looked around the hospital gym and had a deep realisation that the purpose of having my accident was to show and enable others that life could go on after a negative experience, and how important it now was to turn my own, into something truly positive.

This realisation soon became establishing The Next Step SCI Recovery & Wellness Centre.

 

5 things to know about me:

 

1. I have a severe clown phobia that led me to almost loosing my job at McDonalds as a teenager (Ronald and I did not get along!)

2. I have never mastered the art of brushing my teeth without getting toothpaste all over myself and the bathroom mirror.

3. I drool heavily when I am in a deep sleep.

4. I make the best spaghetti bolognese in the universe (self-confessed)

5. I aspire to own an Alpaca!