How many of us sitting here today have a dream, a goal they want to reach? Be it big or small, short term or long term? I’m sure we all do …

My name is Martin Trevor Brown … And I had a DREAM ……..

13 years ago on a scorcher of a Saturday morning I gently dived off a jetty at the Vaal river and struck a submerged sandbank …it was instant …

no pain, no sensation, still fully conscious just floating there face down and listening to the people around me … a very tranquil feeling, almost a weird free feeling, like scuba diving … until you realise you need to breath, but I couldn’t!

“How I dream to have those wings and fly into the sky”… from the song Wings to Fly”, the song that made Susan Boyle’s dream a reality.

"I Have A Dream." A great speech given by the late Martin Luther King Jr.

Abrupt and permanent changes tend to leave us wondering and thinking, what can we do? Besides rant and rave, strike out, or retaliate “vloek” “skel”  - this only makes us feel better until reality hits you … you are drowning ….. BREATHE!

Change is often painful. Yet change is part of life. Such abrupt changes shake us out of the slumber of our daily semi-conscious meandering lives. And such changes offer us the opportunity to change our world and ourselves for the better.

Hitler was sleeping in a fox hole during World war I. He was jolted awake by a nightmare wherein  he couldn’t  breathe, he stood up, stepped outside for a breath and the … fox hole got bombed  -  only he survived…..the rest is history.

I said change is part of life… Well In fact, life is the process of conscious change.
After about 2 minutes of lying face down in the water I passed out, I think my friends then realised that something was wrong.  They got me out the water and onto the jetty where I regained consciousness. You are lying on a jetty with the summer sun beaming down on you and everybody around you is frantic! This is now where fear tries to rear its ugly head but I had to remain in control, you see I’m a qualified Advanced Life Support Paramedic and it was my instinct to control emergency situations, even if it was my own.

Protocols rushed through my head and I had to create order on that jetty or I would die!  With a few commands I got somebody to stabilise my neck, I phoned work and told them that I will not be doing my shift that night. I called JHB GEN. And arranged for the chopper to come fetch me, everything was so clear in my head.

Everything on this earth either came from or is in the process of becoming something else. A tree releases a seed that grows into a seedling and then into a tree that eventually offers new seeds. The seed does not remain the same. It changes and grows and becomes something else. 
My dream is that we as people will begin to appreciate ourselves more - for who we are. That for all of our weaknesses, we must now begin to consider our strengths and build on them.

The late John F. Kennedy once said: “change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.”

My friends flew me to a private clinic where a neuro surgeon was waiting to announce my sentence, but I knew when I struck the sandbank that an instant loss of all sensation is never a good thing. Well I spent 3 months in ICU, ventilated and my world was reduced to a patch on the ceiling! This really gives your mind time to think and ponder. During that time I also learned to begin to appreciate others more, for what they do and what they give.

I read on the Internet yesterday an article about the Power of Thank You. It talked about a woman who got a job, succeeding while the other interviewed candidates did not. It wasn't because she was so much more qualified, because she wasn't. It wasn't because she was so much more connected, because she wasn't. It wasn't because of what she knew or who she knew.

It was because she sent a simple Thank-You card to the interviewers. She was the only one to spend a few extra minutes to show her appreciation to the interviewers who spent a number of hours to meet with her and the others.

Wow!  That something so small as a thank you note can have such a life changing impact on not just in everyday life but in business relations it can be the missing link in marketing.  
After 4 months  in hospital and 1 month in rehabilitation I was let loose to concur with the world again and achieve and perform and succeed ………. Yea right! The world has changed for me and I now had to adapt to it …. Scary! Let’s rewind to before I became a “dam duiker”.

I loved life and lived it to the full Professional Latin dancer, Scuba diving, Transvaal colours in athletics and volleyball, 6 times springbok colours in acrobatics … I had it all and enjoyed it all. Working at trauma units during my shits and the rest of the time I was training and coaching dancing and acrobatic.
While trying to get back into the swing of things in my new life in this world, I complained to my mother who had to quit her job to care for her 27 year old paralysed son. I told her that I was trained to serve and care for people, and she told me that sometime you must also give others the chance to serve and care.

That really stuck in my mind, as a medic it is in your blood to serve and care when that alarm bell calls.
This is now who I am a C4/5 complete Quadriplegic or tetraplegic depending if we are using Latin or Greek. There are 3 main forms of paralysis, Hemi, Para and Quad, and then you also get complete or incomplete this is dependent on how good a job you did by injuring yourself.

Common mistake made by people is if a person can move his arms his paraplegic that definition is complete or partial paralysis in all four quadrants defines you as a quadriplegic.

I have no movement or sensation below my shoulders I can shrug them but that is it, I breath using my diaphragm only, no intercostals muscles.
I can’t cough
I can’t sneeze
I can’t feel anything below my shoulders, not pain, not pressure, nor heat or cold
My diaphragm only gives me a 3rd of my normal lung capacity
I get fed, put to bed and removed from bed
I get bathed and dress by somebody else
I need to be transported everywhere
Privacy is a myth in our lives

Through all this “Dam duiker” and Neck breaking I still have not lost focus on my main goals or path in life. I still choose to serve and care for those who need help and that is still my dream and my goal, I just had to find a way to accomplish my goals.

When I got out of hospital I couldn’t find a wheelchair that could suit my needs as I am 6 feet three inches tall and have a tremendous zest for living.  I want to go places and do things, not just sit cooped up in a room sitting in the sun and watching T.V as is how many disabled people spend there days.
And eureka ….. I found my goal my dream, I’m going to design and build custom power wheelchairs for people that want to get out there again and enjoy the outdoor life at their terms.

My frustration in trying to find an electric wheelchair that catered for my needs led directly to the formation of Radical Mobility, a multi million rand company that now exports custom built wheelchairs to customers all over the world. 

I still have a dream and live it everyday!