Stories of Brain Injury Thrivers

Individual Stories of Brain Injury Thrivers:

In the new theme ‘Beyond Being a Brain Injury Survivor into being a Brain Injury Thriver’, I have initially used my own experience in the last few years as an example of this direction. I have done this because: It is one I know well and I haven’t had much personal contact with many other survivors as I live a long way out of Brisbane, Australia in the countryside …. I live on a five acre property 35 kms out from Brisbane ….. see the story and photographs of our house at this website.

I do not drive now since my accident thirteen years ago ++ as I cannot intuitively take all the information in. I now catch public transport or my wife drives me around. In recent years, I have learnt to drive on the Internet and go around the world to many people as fast as you would talk on a telephone. I have set up a global website: New Earth Community which is a website for a new Cyberspace community around the world called ‘New Earth Community’ …. (This website is going through major reconstruction in July - 2008 to ???? through the free hosting from Word Press, otherwise it costs several hundred $$$ / year from a hosting company every year. Only a few pages are are working at the moment. My 26 year old son Anthony, has set me up in this as he knows far more about computers and the Internet than I do). This community linked by the Internet in Cyberspace. This community is meant to bring a new sense of belonging with the real discovery or affirmation of identity through the Sustainable Life. My story ‘The Rosewater Story’ is told at this section of this website The Brain Injury Survivor Network is a subset of ‘New Earth Community’.

In the last year I have a new digital camera whereby I can take 1000 photos on a tiny chip (a 2 GB Chip and I have two others as well). If you don’t like several photos, you take the photos backwards and delete what you like and then come home and download them straight to your computer. You can then downsize them into a much small size (Photographs can take up a lot of memory), attach them to e-mails and send them to someone around the world on the Internet. You can alternatively copy them across into a Word file as text then print them as a Portable Document file (pdf) See the instructions at this blog site on recommended website links for the free ‘pdf’ writer at:
http://www.pdf995.com/.

In addition, I have learned to make blogs through the free program through Blogger at:

https://www.blogger.com/start

Other people who receive your blog, can add comments to your blog site at the area indicated at the bottom and other people who read what they have said, can add comments to what they have said. It becomes possible to have a long term world wide discussion on you blog site. When you have created a blog with a name, you then go through a section of preset templates for colour and layout. Then you can add chapters of writing called posts and with photographs inserted in the post. I have250 ++ blogs now which I keep coming back, editing or adding fresh posts. See some of my travel blogs at:·

http://chateauxvillandry.blogspot.com/·
http://eiffeltowerken.blogspot.com/·
http://venicetrip.blogspot.com/ ...... just photographs·

http://sorrentovmills.blogspot.com/·
http://ravelloandvillacimbrone.blogspot.com/·
http://cinqueterre1.blogspot.com/·
http://travelblogkenandharriet.blogspot.com/

Some blogs are for sharing the joy and inspiration of life:·

http://thedamkap.blogspot.com/·
http://thepowerofcreativitykap.blogspot.com/·
http://mountainwingskap.blogspot.com/·
http://africaflying.blogspot.com/·
http://thecabride.blogspot.com/


Some blogs for sharing my past history:·

http://themullumbimbytrain.blogspot.com/·
http://thecairnstrip.blogspot.com/


Application of Blogs for Brain Injury group communication:·

http://braininjurysurvivornetwork.blogspot.com/ .... I use this blog which is included in an e-mail broadcast that connects hundreds of brain injury survivors around the world.

When you have set your first blog, you can edit your blog (or later blogs) through what is called a Dashboard. This a central control panel is which only entered by you through your e-mail address and password. Then you access to functions such as: View blog, Create a blog, Manage posts (ie. the chapters you have written in your blog), settings (where can edit the name of your blog or delete your blog altogether).

This year with the theme ‘Beyond Being a Brain Injury Survivor into being a Brain Injury Thriver’, I have begun writing up the stories of other survivors I am in personally in contact with …. and there are lot of you around which the world hasn’t heard about. One amazing lady I went and saw at the start of last year was Meriel Stanger who lives at Deagon on the opposite side of Brisbane city here in Australia.

To get to her, it was a twenty minute car ride to the train station ….. then a half hour wait for the train to inner Brisbane …. Then a quarter of an hour wait for a suburban train out to Deagon …. Then a half hour on the train to Deagon (just as well I have good book!) …. Then a five minute walk to her house. This lady is remarkable for someone who was very badly injured when as horse rolled on her over twelve years ago in March 1995.


Her Story:

She was in hospital twelve months with many operations and had a serious brain injury
She is now in a manual wheelchair for life, is blind in one eye and can only type with one finger. She has already written and self published her first book: a 200 page book called ‘Permission to Shine - The Gift’ (the book is in the tenth reprint) which she sends around the world for a price.

She has written her second book already called ‘Shining On’ …. A book about happiness.

She is involved in so much eg. She is on the boards of several disability advocacy groups in the City, she advises on local Council boards on the needs of people with disabilities in their local council areas and she goes everywhere around the City.

I met Meriel again with others at the ‘Unmet Needs Campaign’ meeting held in August 2005 at a hotel in the City of Brisbane, Australia. Meriel was in her manual wheelchair. She gave me a copy her book which I read with great interest

This was after this time, I went by train to see her at her home at Deagon to interview her. What really got to me when I interviewed her at the end of the time together was the following insight: 'See the gift in your accident'

I have attached five Blog Sites on Meriel’s outlook on life:

>Self Confidence
>A Meaningful Life
>A Response to Ignorance
>Meriel Stanger’s Book Review P&H
>Legalised Murder - Rethinking Life-sustaining Measures

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Takalah Kok Liang: I personally met Takalah in Singapore (as a stop over), on an overseas holiday trip to France in May 2007. This was when my wife Harriet and I went on a 3.5 week holiday to France. The wonderful story of Takalah and his personal journey through an Acquired Brain Injury is told in these websites at:

1. Life Lessons From A Tragic Encounter – Story of Takalah Tan in Singapore:

http://www.inspiring-quotes-and-stories.com/takalah-tan.html

From the person who knew Takalah personally who said: 'Takalah Tan is someone I know living with the complex challenges of Post Traumatic Brain Injury. He is one of the most inspiring people I have ever come across. From him, I found the hope and zest to spurge ahead in my will to live life the best that I can.' Read also the pages at the very bottom the website:

Return from Takalah Tan Brain Injury Life Lessons to Inspiring Stories Page


Return from Takalah Tan Brain Injury Life Lessons to Inspiring Quotes and Stories Home Page
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There many other brain injury survivors around the world who I observe who are involved in this theme ‘Beyond Being a Brain Injury Survivor into being a Brain Injury Thriver’. If you would like your story to be known, send me a one page e-mail on your story with a photograph and giving your permission to publish your story. We would love to hear about it.

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