For those of you who missed it I have added at the Channel 7 video that I featured on in 2009. I have also added some information and a link to Project Walk on the Rehabilitation page.

Enjoy,

Mike.

Following my attendance at the Bayside City Council meeting last week someone found it pertinent to send me my first hate mail! I am flattered by this as it is wonderful to be treated as a normal human being as opposed to somebody who has broken his neck and is confined to a wheelchair most of the time. Just so that you are aware my website is not about hate mail. It is about recovery, persistence, determination, defying the odds and the application of the human spirit. It is an important outlet for me to share my achievements and I know others look at it in the same way. Any further hate mail in relation to my involvement in the community will be deleted as soon as I am aware that it is there.

Cheers,

Mike.

There was an ordinary council meeting last night to make a judgement as to whether the Bayside Council would follow suit with the Kingston and Port Phillip councils to make Beach Road a no stopping zone between the hours of 6 AM and 10 AM on the weekend to allow clear passage for cyclists to avoid negotiating parked cars. Obviously if this ruling had been in place in the Bayside Council area during my ride in June 2008 I would not be a quadriplegic today. I attended this meeting with Monica and a friend and spoke about my experience. Please see the Cycle Safety page for more details.

Welcome all to the new look website. Since my accident there are a number of topics that I am getting approach to be involved in. To address these more easily, I have worked with my brother and his girlfriend to construct a new website which has topics and pages to address them. I am hoping that the additional information is more relevant to where I am at in my recovery and adequately discusses things I want to be involved in as time goes forward. Since my accident and having made a reasonable recovery I’m getting asked a lot of questions regarding the rehabilitation that I have undergone and methods we have used. The rehabilitation page will contain information that will hopefully assist others inflicted with spinal cord injury. I am hoping the content of this page will give people ideas for what might help them faced with similar ordeals. The insurance page discusses aspects of the insurance coverage that I had prior to this injury that I have found helpful. I would also like to use this page to improve aspects of insurance particularly to do with the use of roads by cyclists which is getting more and more prevalent. As more cyclists are choosing that method of transport I think it will be important to recognise cyclists as road users from an insurance perspective. This is not the case at the moment because you cannot register as a road user on a bicycle. The cycle safety page will provide updates on my involvement with cycle safety issues including my involvement with bodies and foundations aimed at improving the way a road is shared between bicycles and motor vehicles. I have also been asked and have accepted invitations to do public speaking. I have really enjoyed these opportunities and I hope the audience that I have spoken to have enjoyed what I’ve had to say and present. This page will provide information on the topics that I’m speaking about and even future engagements that I may be speaking at. So please enjoy the content of the website and any comments on its layout and content are welcome.

On another note my beautiful daughter Ashley has started school. This is a real milestone in our family as she has been through a lot more than your average child during the last two years. I’m pleased to say that at this stage as we start week three of her school life she appears to have settled in well. As her father I am very proud and very pleased to be involved in helping her get to school and home again in the afternoon. As time goes on I am looking forward to being involved in the classroom to help her and others develop through her first year of school. I am also pleased to report that I achieved a goal of mine in that I walked into her classroom. I was using crutches and it involved two steps. Ashley was wonderful and so pleased to see me in her classroom with all of the other parents helping her settle in.

Enjoy the photos that I have included of her first day at school.

It has been a little while since the last post (and that does not mean it is Anzac Day) but I have uploaded another video of some exercise that I’m doing at the gym with my trainer Patrick. It is a seated rowing exercise while sitting on a Swiss ball. I am quite proud of this exercise as it is taken quite some time to even be able to sit on a Swiss ball. In addition to this, it has taken a long time to get my shoulder blades to move at all let alone under my own muscle control. So here it is, enjoy and don’t try this at home!

I hope you are all well and Merry Christmas to all. Be good to family and friends because trust me in times of need they are the best resource you could ever have.

Cheers,

Mike.

Just a quick post to give you an update of the walking. My lovely Mum took a video last time she was down to visit. It gives you an idea of the improvements I have made since being in the US.

The biggest improvements for mine are being able to do it without gloves, being able to talk whilst I walk, and not having to lock my knees with every step. Aside from this I can turn around and walk a lot quicker and have just started learning how to do steps.

Enjoy,

Mike.