“I didn’t think it would happen to me! If I knew then what I know now I would have done things differently.”
Andrew made a choice to ride his quad bike up a steep spur to get home faster. It saved him having to open six gates!
Two minutes after that decision he was lying in paddock with a shattered vertebrae, in agony, unable to move his legs, wondering if anyone would find him in time.
“I didn’t think it would happen to me! If I knew then what I know now I would have done things differently.”
Andrew made a choice to ride his quad bike up a steep spur to get home faster. It saved him having to open six gates!
Two minutes after that decision he was lying in paddock with a shattered vertebrae, in agony, unable to move his legs, wondering if anyone would find him in time.
On a day, just like any other, Andrew Fleming’s life suddenly changed. He was returning from a regular daily task on the family farm and, because he didn’t want to open the six gates on the safe route, took a short cut up a hill. A gust of wind came along at the wrong time and flipped him, throwing him from the quad bike. Laying there in the paddock his mind raced as he thought he would die before anyone noticed he was missing. His recollection of those six hours, knowing he had to stay alert until the neighbour came out to milk his cows, is heart wrenching but as challenging as that day was it was only one of many to come — he was about to face bigger challenges than he could ever have imagined.
Andrew was a fit, active farmer, and an accomplished water skier and snow skier. But from that moment his life as he knew it was gone – he was paralysed.
Change the Channel is a reminder to us all to take responsibility for our future but also not to give up when something seems impossible – there will always be a way to rise above the challenges. Andrew has just been awarded the NSANZ BrightStar Emerging Speaker of the Year for 2014 and enjoys being back on the slopes he loved so much in his specially made sit ski.
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