Being disabled isn’t something that I would recommend let’s make that very clear, but I think that I’ve kind of accepted it as best as I can by creating my new normal, some might say that I’ve created a better life for myself as a public speaker, and quite a serious para-cyclist.
I mean take public speaking, I get to stand on stage and talk about myself in front of thousands of people, how good is that?
The least number was to 6 people in a practice presentation at the Speech Therapy Practice in Birmingham to the most being 125 people at a speech and language therapy conference in Milton Keynes, I obviously did something right because, that same conference earnt me lunch at The House of Commons in London.
I should be very proud of myself especially when you consider the fact that for the first three months following my accident, I was only able to say the word Mum, to now presenting to a range of audiences. I mainly give talks at universities, to students training to be a therapist of some description. In fact, Worcester University was one of my very first talks back in 2016 to their Occupational Therapy students, and I’ve been invited back at least one sometimes twice a year ever since.
I actually started my public speaking journey in the spring of 2016 when my speech therapist Jo Frost said to me that I needed a goal, and I remember like it was yesterday saying; (during a career that spanned some 16 years I delivered over 1000 presentations, each with the same thing in common, to sell something and to ultimately earn more commission so why not public speaking?).
To my surprise she said, why not let’s make it happen. Since my first official talk at Greenwich University in Leicester to a group of speech language therapy students, I’ve delivered over 100 presentations each with the same thing in common, to motivate and to inspire people to be the very best version of themselves, see the fundamental difference?
Since being discharged from rehab, and subsequently finding out that I couldn’t return to work, I’ve been desperately trying to find something other than watching mindless rubbish on the television to occupy a very active mind.
I’ll never forget attending NADEX, the disability show in Birmingham a few years ago with the sole intension of finding a shower which, we did but that’s another story I’ll come back too.
Whist I was there I noticed, and I had a go on a recumbent trike, I was hooked so Birgit Richardson-Rathje who was my case manager at the time, new a guy called Kevin Dunseath who had a shop called D-TEK at a place called Little Threatford just outside Cambridge.
His shop was primitive to say the least, there was no way on earth I could have got inside. It’s lucky it was a summers day, so he brought a red ICE Sprint out to the front of the shop where I was able to have a good look at it, and take it for a test ride round the adjacent housing estate.
Now bearing in mind I hadn’t ridden a bike of any kind for about 15 years prior, it all came flooding back, I was off like a kid in a candy shop, I was instantly addicted…..
It didn’t take me long before I was onto bigger and better things.
After about four months of riding the Sprint on places like the Tissington trail, an old disused railway line in Derbyshire, Sutton Park in Sutton Coldfield, and Canon Hill Park in Birmingham. I went and bought an ICE VorTeX also from Kevin.
I had the idea that I wanted to return to competitive cycling given my pedigree.
We soon discovered that the trike was so unstable, when going down a decent just outside Harrogate in Yorkshire whilst attempting to cycle a Coast to Coast from Morcombe to Bridlington, when going down the decent probably to fast knowing me, I rolled the trike about 5 time before I finally ground to a halt upside down with the trike on top of me. LOL
Luckily for me an off-duty police officer was passing, so he called for an ambulance and organised a road block.
I’ve never seen anything so ridiculous in all my life, at the hospital they must have wrapped me up like an Egyptian Mummy.
Another time I rolled the trike was on the JOGLE, we’d cycled from John O’ Groats to Bristol without a problem, at this point we’d probably cycled about 750 road miles to get to Bristol when in our infinite wisdom we decided to use a cycle path to get us through Bristol.
Big mistake, this time I had done absolutely nothing wrong, but due to the path being so uneven I somehow managed to crash the trike breaking several spokes in one of my front wheels.
Again, luckily for me a local bike shop was able to save the day.
Listed below are some, not all by any stretch of the imagination, but just some of my cycling achievements since being disabled: –
- Year 2020 – I cycled what turned out to be 956.04 miles, all the way from John O’ Groats in the far North of Scotland to Lands-end in the far South of England in just 14 days;
- Year 2021 – I cycled the NC500 in the Scottish Highlands achieving 509 miles in just 9 days, I’ve never seen a Golden Eagle before, not even in captivity, but on this trip, we saw 5 of them in just one day;
- Year 2022 – I took to competitive cycling, riding in the British Cycling Para-cycling series, racing for a sponsored team called 365 Shut winning the entire series of 9 races and taking 3rd place in the National Championship;
- Year 2022 – I cycled all of the D-Day Landing beaches in Normandy France, to say that it was a very eery experience is an understatement with abandoned 2nd world war military vehicles dotted around the place, along with house and garden walls peppered with bullet holes and the remanence of buildings that had been destroyed by 2nd world war bombs;
- Year 2023 – I cycled The Loire Valley also in France, a very different experience to Normandy with very beautiful chateaus and stunning scenery. This trip was more about enjoying the ambience the beautiful food and wine, this we definitely achieved because cycling on a belly full of fine food and wine is hard work.
- Year 2024 – This year we had hoped to cycle the length of Spain from South to North, this would have been around 600 miles. However, due to the time of year we attempted it we couldn’t get accommodation in the South so we had to start about 150 miles inland;
- Year 2024 – Ever since my accident I have always wanted to go back to the scene of the accident to put some demons behind me and, to see if I could remember anything about Baden-Baden. Of course, I couldn’t remember a thing. On arriving at the scene, we found a caffe where we sat eating home baked cake and, drinking a fresh cappuccino. It’s hard to imagine that more than a decade ago the scene was very different. There was I having been knocked of my motorbike and rushed to the hospital strapped to the side of a helicopter. The staff in the caffe in pigeon English said that they could vaguely remember the accident and they couldn’t believe I had cycled their all these years later;
- Year 2025 – This year saw us taking on cycling 583 miles from The English Channel all the way down through France to the Mediterranean. The temperature the further South we went was unbearable so we were having to be on the road early, about 7am then stop just after lunch, take an afternoon siesta, then go back out at about 8pm to finish that day’s ride. When I say it was unbearable, I’m not kidding when I say even my trike was sinking into the tarmac in the road;
When I say that I’ve cycled it’s important to note that none of these trips would have been possible with out my two co-pilots Ian and Rhys.
I bet your all well jealous…..LOL
The fact that I’m disabled is something that I had never considered would happen to me, it certainly wasn’t in my life plan; I mean why on earth would it? When my life before my accident wasn’t the best by any stretch of the imagination, but I was already a roaring success at a very young age.
35 years old I would have been when my entire world was torn apart, when of course I’m referring to my accident.
A career that had spanned some 26 years climbing up the ranks and, becoming the Sales Director for a division of IBM called IBM Rational was so rudely taken from me.
The 5th of August 2009 is a day that I’ll never forget for all the wrong reasons.
We were on the B500 also known as the Romantic Road, when I say we I mean me and my best friend Simon.
The B500, or Black Forest High Road (Schwarzwaldhochstraße), is a famous 37-mile (60 km) to 233 km scenic route in southern Germany’s Black Forest, running from Baden-Baden to the Swiss border. Known for its, sweeping bends, high-quality surface, and elevated views, it is a premier destination for motorcycle and driving enthusiasts, offering breath-taking scenery.
Pictured below is an example of just one of the truly amazing hairpin bends on the B500, roads to die for, almost quite literally in my case….
This is the only place that I’ve ever been where you can go through a set of knee sliders in just one day on the motorbike.
Basically, we’d been down to the Eiffel region of Germany to ride the Nürburgring that particular day.
“As if we hadn’t had enough adrenaline”.
Because the B500 was so good, and so twisty as you can see in the photograph above, lots of knee down action, we must have simultaneously thought to ourselves wouldn’t it be a good idea to go back and ride that exact same stretch of road again.
We pulled over in a layby not far from Baden-Baden, and we arrived at the same decision to go back and ride that exact same stretch of road again….
That split second decision turned out to be the best decision, and the worst decision that I’ve ever made.
Let me explain: –
It was the best decision because, I’m now able to focus what little energy I now have on the things that I enjoy the most, those being cycling, public speaking, and writing blogs, in fact I’ve become quite a renowned blogger with more than 4000 followers.
It was the worst decision because, I ended up being knocked of my shiny red Ducati 1098s, and left fighting for my life with several broken limbs and a traumatic brain injury ultimately leaving me disabled.
“Putting some demons behind me”
We cycled to the scene of my accident just outside Baden-Baden in Germany from Strasbourg in France in 2024 with the sole intention of putting some demons behind me which, I kind of managed.
The following day we cycled to the hospital where I was airlifted to in Baden-Baden, now I’ve been to some pretty impressive hospitals since my accident the Queen Elizabeth in Birmingham being one of them, but none of them come anywhere near as beautiful as this place was.
It was like a stately home….
I’ll never forget the feeling of emptiness when I arrived at the accident scene, I didn’t really know how I’d feel.
I’ll also never forget the climb to get to the accident scene, it certainly wasn’t the steepest or was it the longest since returning to cycling several years ago, but baring in mind I’m disabled it was still a pretty tall order.
I’ve only cried, I mean really cried twice since my accident, once on completing the JOGLE, the feeling of elation was just too much.
The second was on the approach to my accident scene, I don’t know if this was planned, I imagine it was, but the final climb I did the last part of the climb on my own, with Rhys following about 500yds back on foot.
If it was planned that way then, thanks guys it means a lot….
In fairness being disabled has created some pretty spectacular achievements, had I not been disabled I almost definitely wouldn’t be public speaking simply because, a) I wouldn’t have had the time due to my work commitments and b) I wouldn’t have had an interesting enough story to share.
I’m not being big headed, but before, long before my accident, in fact about 35 years ago I was quite an impressive cyclist having raced against the likes of former world hour record holder on the velodrome, and Tour de France stage winner Chris Boardman along with many other top British professionals and armatures in a race known as The Tour of Lancs.
My cycling achievements listed above aren’t in the same league, but now that I’m disabled, they are still pretty impressive.
When I look back over the last few years, given my circumstance I think that I’ve achieved some quite spectacular things, I’ve gone from needing help and support for my personal care, to now being 100% self-sufficient, well 95%, I still need help fastening buttons, I simply don’t have the movement in my right arm and, my fingers in my right hand can’t hold the buttons to enable me to wear a shirt.
I also can’t fasten shoe laces so I live in trainers because, I can wear them without fastening the laces, isn’t that the trendy thing to do anyway? LOL
For me personally being disabled isn’t as bad as I first thought however, having a brain injury is an entirely different kettle of fish.
Mental fatigue is a killer, I’m not sure if it’s the same for everybody with a brain injury, I imagine it is especially reading statistic like, (having a brain means that you are 40% more susceptible to mental fatigue than somebody who doesn’t have a brain injury).
It is almost impossible to say what my greatest achievement since having my brain injury actually is when there has been so many to choose from.
Is it only being able to say the word Mum to now presenting to a range of audiences?
OR,
Is it one of my many cycling achievements?
OR,
Is it becoming 95% self-sufficient in my personal care?
OR,
Is it walking completely independently with a stick?
I think that I’ll let you guys decide….
On the 20th May 2020 I was going to be hosting a public speaking conference called “The will to succeed” where all the speakers including myself had a disability of some description.
It was going to be held at The Abby Hotel in Redditch, with a pretty impressive line-up.
I had: –
- Obviously, myself former sales director for IBM Rational;
- Former football ace Charlie Fogarty;
- Locked-in-syndrome survivor and global speaker Kate Allatt;
- Wheelchair model Samantha Bullock;
- Spinal stroke survivor and global speaker Riona Kelly;
Unfortunately, the dreaded COVID-19 Virus had other ideas, and the conference had to be cancelled.
Yes, I’m very aware that I mention these guys in my last blog, “disability definitely is not inability” before I’m accused of being repetitive, but I’m trying to make this story even more compelling.
I’m seriously considering hosting this conference again with different speakers….
Being disabled has opened up a whole new world of interesting, and diverse people, people that had I not been disabled I’d almost certainly never met.
Paul Fogarty, the guy that I’d mentioned in my last blog, the guy with no arms, and just his left leg has put me in touch with a man called Adrian from The Rock Bottom Podcasts.
Having already reached out to Adrian this was the message that I received back from him, only short and sweet through Facebook Messenger, but assuming I get the chance to appear one of his Podcasts it just adds another string to my bow when I’m giving a talk.
Hi Shane, Thank you for reaching out and for sharing part of your story. Firstly, massive respect — what you’ve been through and the way you’ve turned it into something positive is powerful. Paul mentioned you, so I appreciate him connecting us. Your journey from a life-threatening accident to becoming a public speaker sounds like the kind of real, honest conversation we focus on with From Rock Bottom. The podcast has built a solid audience over the past year, and episodes centred around resilience and life-changing moments tend to really resonate with our viewers. I think your story could have a strong impact. I would definitely be interested in featuring your story
“I did do a little google search after your initial message and i like your story“
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